The next Hathaway
by invaderTINA
Summary: What will happen when Rose and the gang turn up and turn someone's life upside down. Azra Arabella Kelly thinks she's just an average human being but in just an hour she finds out that she's not the person she thought she was.
1. Chapter 1

**A/n - So obviously I don't own any of the rights to vampire academy. **

**This is my first ever fanfiction! sorry if the grammar/spelling is bad. I couldnt find the spell checker on my laptop. Haha**

**Anyways! hope you enjoy this. I have a lot more to write yet but I hope you enjoy the first chapter!**

**Dont forget to review and all that stuff. :)**

**_Kristina x_**

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I was standing in my room sorting through clothes and packing them into a suitcase. I was running off to Vegas with a bunch of people I didnt know. An hour ago if you had told me this I'd have said that you were crazy and a little bit stupid for believing that but i've found out enough information in these last 60 minutes to turn my world upside down. I guess I should bring you up to date with my story.

_An hour earlier._

Walking back from my local town after a spot of shopping I noticed two things, one; it was springtime. The air was still cool but it had a warm edge to it. It was warm enough to not wear a coat but the coolness meant you still neaded a jacket. I was wearing my football style jacket that seemed to be in fashion this season. I saw them in plenty of the shop's windows. I have to say I was pretty annoyed by that, I bought my jacket before there was even a hint of it being in trend and now everyone was wearing them. Still I loved it too much to ditch it now. The second thing I noticed was that someone was following me and had been for about five minutes. I glanced behind me and saw my pursuer, He was freakishly tall and wearing a long leather coat and not too mention he was extrememly gorgeous. I scolded myself when i realised i was checking out my creepy stalker. I was trying to think of a shortcut to my house that would enable me to get away from him as fast as i could but since i was starting to panic my mind was blank. In the time id spent thinking things over my stalker had gained on me. Every instinct in my body told me to run and so i did. i was scared but i made my legs move. I was pretty fast. I allways had been. I excelled in all physical activities in school and my teacher had told me i was unnaturally fast. after id cleared a few streets i chanced a quick look behind me, he was gone. I'd managed to out run him. feeling relief pour over my body i slowed down into a fast walk. Just because i couldnt see him doesnt mean he wasnt there. I was completely freaked out. Why had someone been following me? it wasn't even dark yet. I thought all that creepy stuff went on in the pitch black of the night.

I quickly reached the alley way leading to my house. My parents had bought this house when i was four. It used to be an old farm house but they converted it into a sort of country cottage. My parents werent exactly rich but we were pretty well off and they worked hard for every penny of it. My Dad - Joseph Kelly worked in Advertising, you know those quirky slogans you see for different product brands? Well he writes those with a team of people and my mum - Anna Kelly is a personal assistant to some important bussiness man in the city who keeps her very busy. They very rarely have sick days or even normal days off and they _never_ borrow money. Ever. I know i've been extremely lucky growing up. I had an allowence every week and I have a wardrobe full of nice clothes. Im not spoilt though. My parents have a very firm belief that everyone should earn the nice things in life. They think that know one should get the good stuff free. You can't imagine how proud they where when i landed a summer job last year. For six whole weeks I was the best daughter in the world. They told all their work colleagues about my job answering the phone for some rich dude. I hesitantly walked through the alley, reminding myself that it was day time and nothing bad usually happens when the suns out. Half way through I noticed something moving in the corner of my eye. I couldnt make out what it was but something told me I needed to pick up my pace, I'd started to run again when I felt a hand clasp around my shoulder and push me into the wall. it hurt. i groaned in pain and stared up at the culprit. fear shot through my body and im sure it was seeping out of my pores. There standing before me was the creepy stalker guy. He must have sensed he was hurting me because he loosened his grip though still managing to hold me down firmly. I was so terrified I could barely move, my breathing became loud and rapid. I wanted to push against this guy and run but my body wouldnt co-operate, it just stayed rigid and pathetic against the wall. mustering all my strenght and confidence, I was about to scream and demand that creepy guy let go of me when I saw more movement. i clasped my mouth shut unable to talk again. A blonde pretty girl walked towards me. for a split second i'd thought the girl was going to help me I mean if you saw her walking towards you, you'd hardly think she was going to attack you. To my dismay she took a place standing next too the tall guy. She smiled at me and I felt my whole body relax, I no longer felt the need to get out of there I felt warm and at ease. My attacker let go of me but stayed tense ready to leap out at me if I tried to escape.

The pretty girl took a step closer to me and stared right into my eyes, it almost felt as though she was staring into my soul.

"please dont be affraid, we're not going to hurt you! we just want to talk" I don't know why but I believed every word she said, I was completely calm and believed that they weren't going to harm me. I nodded unsure of what else to do.

"your going to walk on to your house and let me and my friends inside, your not going to alarm anyone, just carry on as usual" her big green eyes stared down at me. At first i wanted to tell her she was crazy if she thought I was going to invite them inside my house but then I had the sudden urge to do just that - yes it seemed the logical thing to do. How rude they must think I was making them stand outside.

"Would you like to come to my house?" i asked. I almost didnt recognise my voice it sounded so dull. almost like it wasnt me speaking. She smiled at me and i lead the way with them following behind.

Once inside I took them into my living room. They sat on my leather sofa both looking like they were expecting something. There was a knock on the door and I looked at the girl uncertain.

"That's the rest of my friends. Would you please let them in?" she smiled at me and I complied without a thought letting in the rest of her group.

I stared back at the strangers in my front room, my head began to clear and I started to remember that I knew none of these people. fear shot through me again. Why had I listened to that girl? I'd have done anything she said. I felt it. the need to do whatever she wanted. It was almost like a burning sensation. There was 6 of them all together. Two girls and four guys. my eyes flickered to the newest female member. something about her looked so familiar. I moved my gaze and one by one took in the strangers. I tried to hide my panic. afterall I had no idea what they even wanted. Surely by now if they'd have wanted to kill me i'd be dead. right? i backed away from them as far as I could until I hit the window.

"Why did I just do that?" my voice cracked in fear when I asked. At first no one answered they all looked at me trying to figure out what to say. Eventually the familiar girl spoke.

"Because she asked you too" i stared at her completely bemused. How was that even a serious answer?

"No. People ask me to do things all the time and I usually have the will power to make my own decision!" i knew my voice sounded hysterical but I had every right to be. A new guy spoke next. Even when he was sitting down I could tell he was tall. Not as tall as the freakishly tall dude, but still pretty tall. He was also really good looking. Infact looking at all the strangers I realised what an attractive bunch of people they were. I didnt know wether I should find it odd that a bunch of strange people, who could potentially be my murderers could be so good looking, surely they should all be bald and grim.

"Maybe, she's just really persuasive" he flashed a cheeky grin and ran his hand through his messily styled hair. I had no idea if these people were toying with me for fun but I did remember the blonde girl saying she wanted to talk. maybe I was grasping at anything hoping for some truth in the statement. I wanted desperately for them not to be crazy murderers. I was screwed if they where. there was too many of them for a start not too mention how stupidly strong the one who had pinned me to the wall had been.

"Allright, you -" I pointed to the girl who had 'persuaded' me back in the alley, she looked nervous. which I thought was particularly silly for a killer.

"You said back there, that you just wanted to talk. Is that true? or where you just trying to get me back here in some sick crazy scheme to kill me?" a few of them stiffled laughs. they really were sick bastards.

"No" she answered, she looked almost hurt by my accusation "We really did just want to talk to you, maybe we should start by explaining who we are... Rose?" she looked at the girl who look so farmiliar to me. I still couldnt pin point what it was but something in me knew her face from somewhere. it almost made me trust her. almost. She stood up and walked forwards a little.

"look, where not psychopaths. if we wanted to kill you, it would have happened by now. we're a lot faster than that. My name is Rose Hathaway." she paused and looked back at her friends unsure wether to carry on, the freakishly tall dude nodded at her to continue.

"i'm your sister." I stared at her in disbelief. I finally understood who they were now. They were obviously looneys who had escaped from somewhere.

"Your crazy. Do you know that?" it was my turn to laugh now, they looked as if theyd expected me to react this way. "You expect me to believe that your my sister? I'm an only child!" I practically shouted the last part. she looked frustrated at me.

"Your not an only child! and I am not crazy!"

"My parents would have told me if I had a sister"

"Just like they've told you that your adopted!"

"Rose!" The blonde girl had shouted. Just like me she must have thought it was particularly rude for her to say.

"And you expect me to believe that, you don't have any proof!" To my dissapointment she crossed the room to her backpack and took out a large brown envelope, that looked a lot like proof to me. My mind started to go into over drive _It can't be true! My parents are Joseph Kelly and Anna Kelly. _She handed me the envelope and she looked almost guilty about what she was about to show me. My hand started to tremble as I ripped it open. I felt my eyes widen in horror. Sure enough in my hands before me was an adoption certificate with mine and my parents names on it. I tried to think of something to say as I stared at the paper in shock. I wanted to shout at these people and tell them that they were lying. but all I could manage was

"Oh god!" I had to put my hand on the window to hold myself up. "This..this can't be real. I'm not. It can't be!" I could feel tears running down my cheeks. I knew my sentence hadn't made much sense but Rose understood perfectly. She held my arm and sat me on the chair she had recently vacated.

"I'm sorry but this is all true. I need you to listen to me again now. This isn't the only reason we've come here today" I looked into her face i'm not sure what it was that persuaded me, maybe it was the adoption certificate I was still clutching in my hand or maybe it was the pure honest look on her face. As I continued to stare into her face I realised why she was so familiar to me. We looked the same. I was shorter - a lot shorter but the similarities where still there, The nose shape, the lip shape, the cheek bones and even the tan. I had allways thought it strange to have a light tan when my parents happened to be fair skinned. I knew I believed her now. I looked into her face once more and nodded. I didn't think it was much of an indication but she smilled and carried on anyway.

She started to explain about a world I had been oblivious too for nearly nineteen years but apparently belonged in. She talked about Moroi's and Dhampir's and guardian's. About how I was one of these Dhampir's. About how I had so many more opportunities in this new life. She told me how guardian's were short in numbers and how if I wanted too I could train and become one. She explained other things to me but I blanked out after a while. I was still in shock after finding out the people i'd lived with and loved all these years wheren't my parents. I felt betrayed and now my apparent sister was trying to tell me I belonged to the world of vampires. I looked up and saw that all their eyes were on me. I realised that Rose had stopped talking a while ago now. I was a little embarressed at being caught out and mumbled at her

"sorry, what?" She looked at me in pure exasperation. Obviously not pleased at repeating herself.

"I said, are you coming with us?" crap. How long had I spaced out for?

"Going with you? Where?" I swear if looks could kill her glare would have decapitated me right there.

"Vegas?" Huh? she expects me to go to Vegas with her after i've just met her today?

"Why would i go to Vegas with you?"

"Did you listen to anything I just said?"

"Some of it, But your missing the big picture here Rose! you come here tell me the people i've lived with for near enough 19 years aren't my parents and then you tell me that Vampires are real... how do you expect me to-" Before i could answer the Guy with messy brown hair stood infront of me baring a huge grin and I caught a glimpse of all the proof i'd ever need. Fangs. they weren't just a little pointy like human teeth. They were full on fangs. even without feeling them i knew they must be sharp. I shivered. he seemed pleased by this and sat back down, grinning at his friends. They had obviously had a plan before coming here, who would capture me, who would hypnotise me and who walk talk to me and convince me. I dont think this guy had been part of the plan but something told me he didn't listen to other people often. He did his own thing.

"Oh" was all I could say.

"All im asking of you is to come to Vegas with us for a while. I know its hard to put trust in people you dont know but your ticket has allready been paid for. I can teach you about our ways and plus its a free holiday for you! and at the end of it if you want to come back here then you can. I'd leave you alone." she looked into my eyes, I could sense a tone of urgency she wanted me to go with her. I still wasnt sure wether her intentions were good.

"But why vegas?" I'd allways wanted to go to Vegas. Since I was little. I used to flip through the photos in Holiday catalogues longingly since my parents - or who ever they were never took time off work I'd never been on holiday.

"Well Lissa -" she pointed to the blonde girl. "has business to do there anyway, we thought we'd prolong the stay to persuade you." I stared at Lissa, Business? she doesn't look like the workaholic type.

"business?" I asked, Lissa looked up at me I could see she didn't feel comfortable about what she was about to say

"oh, um i'm the queen"

"Queen? you have your own queen?"

"ofcourse we do!" Rose interupted. "Why wouldn't we?" I honestly didn't know why they wouldn't. I mean why not? I guess if they had their own vampire community then they'd need a monarch to lead them. Still I had a lot of thinking to do. hopefully they were going to give me enough time to think about this. She'd offered me more job opportunities and with the current recession in the human world - My world. I knew that even a university degree couldnt definitely secure me a career in the future.

"Oh and another thing. We leave in an hour." So thats why they all looked so impatient. They needed to persuade me to go ASAP.

"An hour? what? why so soon?"

"Because any longer and your parents will be home from work"

"An hour though? i haven't even decided if I want to go yet!" different thoughts were zooming through my mind. _different opportunites. Adventure. VEGAS. _I realised then that I had pretty much made my mind up. I mean it was almost like a trial. At the end of the holiday I can decide what I want to do. Plus i'd be in Vegas!

"Actually" I piped up "I have" They looked up at me, Their expressions ranged from worry to anxiousness. I thought best to get my answer out sooner rather than later.

"I'll come"

_Present._

So that's how I ended up here - in my room packing my suitcase for a holiday with strangers. My name is Azra Arabella Kelly, I'm 19 in a month, Im 5ft 2, I have bright red hair thats curly and messy (sort of like a cross between Rihanna and Ke$ha) I have green eyes and I've just found out that I'm adopted _**and**_ that I belong to a world of vampires. Yeah. That's alot to take in all in one day - let alone an hour. So stick around because i'm guessing that the next couple of weeks are going to be pretty eventfull.

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**So, what do you guys think of my new Character? I needed to explain alot of stuff in this first chapter so you dont really get a good feel for her character but hopefully you guys will like her! Will probably do a few different POV's in the future chapters, Maybe get Rose's proper take on whats going on. I tried to not give away alot in this chapter too but hopefully It wasnt annoying! ahah.**

**Anyway please rate! hope you enoyed it!**

**_Kristina x_  
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	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone one! so this is the second chapter, it's a bit longer than the last one because I felt it was a bit rushed. I wanted it to be in more detail so i tried to detail this one as much as possible!**

**Anyways hope you enjoy this chapter! Sorry for any mistakes I might have made!**

**Dont forget to review! **

**Thanks!**

**Oh! just to warn you there is swearing and some heated moments in this. Not like full on heated moments or anything but still thought i'd just warn in advance :)  
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**_Kristina x_**

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After I handed my ticket to the air hostess I stared around looking for my seat. Even though I didn't know Rose I was kinda hoping to sit next to her It would have made me feel less awkward, her being my sister an all. She was sat by the window with Dimitri at her side. No hope there then. I frowned and looked around, It seemed everyone had someone to sit with. I spotted a spare seat near to Adrian (Rose had finally introduced me to everyone in the car ride and I had their names pretty well memorised.) hesitantly I sat next to him. He turned to me and grinned

"Can't get enough of me can you?" I rolled my eyes. He was so cocky considering I'd just met him.

"actually all the other seats are taken" I gave him a sarcastic smile and he chuckled to himself. He looked so gorgeous when he laughed. It just looked so natural. I realised I was staring and averted my eyes as soon as I could apparently it wasn't soon enough though.

"I know I'm handsome but you shouldn't spend all of your time staring at my amazing face. I don't blame you though some say it looks like it was sculpted by the angels you know" he held his hands underneath his chin and batted his eyelashes. Rose had told me that the worst thing ever was to laugh at Adrian's jokes. She had said it was practically like first base for him. I couldn't help but let out a giggle anyway. I mean it was a pretty funny sight to see.

"Your so pretty?" I asked sarcastically.

"Aw Thanks!" he winked. He paused for a while before talking again."So, Azra Arabella Kelly .. that's quite an interesting name you have"

I shrugged "I've had it for over 18 years, it seems pretty normal to me"

"Do you know what it means?" he'd rested his head on his hands and actually looked generally interested.

"Yes." I knew it was a vague answer but I really didn't want to tell him what it meant. It was embarrassing enough knowing it myself let alone telling anyone!

"Are you gonna elaborate? Or do I have to guess.?"

"I'd like to see you guess." I laughed.

He came up with an array of possible meanings for my name and they ranged from nice things like beautiful and lovely too really strange ones like Pretzel and banana. I laughed at each one he said because he was so far off from ever guessing it. Like really far off. He laughed along with me and finally said...

"I give up, just tell me?" he pouted and I somehow knew that he used that face a lot when he didn't get his own way. I looked down and started playing with my seat belt

"All right I'll tell you but you have to promise not to laugh or make jokes about it okay?" he nodded but I knew that it would go out the window as soon as he heard it.

"well Azra is Turkish" I paused.

"yes...?" he waved his hand motioning for me to keep going

"It means" I stopped and sighed "it means virgin"

"what?" he scoffed. He burst out into fits of hysterics. I glared at him but he just laughed harder. Hmm . I'd have to work on the famous Hathaway glare I'd seen Rose perform earlier.

"Anyways," I carried on over his laughter, he stiffled his laughter after I'd spoken again but his shoulders still jiggled up and down. "Arabella is German... for hero." Adrian burst out into hysterics again and tried to speak through the laughter.

"That's great, your name means Virgin hero!" I don't remember how long he laughed for. In the end Christian and Lissa had shouted at him to shut up. Thankfully he did.

"and that's the last time I tell _you _anything." I said, I should have lied and told him it meant something normal. I knew I wasn't going to live it down. He smirked at me trying to stop himself laughing again.

"Sorry, I think it was the shock" it looked like he was about to start laughing again until his eyes lit up spotting something in the aisle coming our way. I looked up to see an air hostess pushing a drinks trolley.

"want some champagne?" he asked. I knew I probably shouldn't be drinking this early but hey, Rose had told me all about the time differences between humans and vampires so didn't that technically mean it was like night time now? And perfectly fine for me to be drinking? Pleased with my justification I agreed.

"Sure" I shrugged, The hostess handed me my glass. I'd never tasted champagne before. Heck I'd never really drank anything with alcohol in before. My parents had frowned upon drinking so I never did. I never went through the rebellious streak in high school and got drunk with my friends off bottles of cheap cider. I'd been the ideal daughter! but hey my parents lied to me for 18 years. Why should I listen to them now?. I sniffed the drink first and made my decision to drink it. I downed it in one and shivered at the taste. It was goooood! I glanced over to Adrian and saw him looking at me a little amused.

"Um, thirsty?" he asked. I giggled. Is it possible to be tipsy after one glass?

"I've never drank it before" I admitted. He looked shocked at this.

"really? Are you just trying to get another free glass of champagne out of me?" he winked.

"no I mean it, that was the first time I've ever tasted it." I stated.

"what did you think?" he smiled a devious smile which I had also decided was sexy too.

I tried to do the same smile back "Its good" I put emphasis on the good part. I glanced at Adrian again, Taking him in. Did I mention how good looking he was? I could see him smirking at me. _Crap. _He'd caught me checking him out. I looked away in embarrassment. Feeling my cheeks getting warmer. I laughed a nervous laugh and mumbled something about how I wasn't actually looking at him I was looking out the window. Only to have my plan spoiled when Adrian had stated that the blind was closed. He laughed it off.

"Just admit it, you fancy the pants off of me." he was grinning and I wondered if he actually ever stopped grinning.

"I think you fancy the pants off yourself. Plus no one says that any more Adrian"

"I say it"

"exactly" I laughed. We talked and giggled some more until Rose had told us to go to sleep. Yes my younger sister had ordered me to go to sleep but she did have logic, Cardiff to Vegas was a Ten and a half hour flight. Oh yeah did I mention I'm Welsh? Any way the flight is long enough to have a whole nights sleep. I agreed and grabbed my eye mask out of my bag, after I slipped it over my head I heard Adrian scoff.

"what?" I asked blindly. Literally I couldn't see now that it was over my eyes.

"nothing" he answered I could still hear the amused tone in his voice "I just didn't think people actually wore those that's all.

"I wear them!"

"exactly" he answered with my answer from earlier. I couldn't help but smile. So far I liked Adrian. And yes I fancied him a little too but I wasn't going to let him know this. After all I'd know him what like two maybe three hours? I couldn't sleep for a while. It was hard to get comfy. I kept moving around and tossing and turning. Adrian sighed and pulled a little lever on the side of my chair and it started to lower itself backwards. I felt him move back into his seat and soon after that I drifted off into a dreamless slumber

I woke up to someone shouting at me

"Azra... Azra... AZRA!"

"Hm?" I answered still half asleep.

"The plane has landed, where all waiting on you now" Rose said slightly irratated. Oops! I wondered how long she'd been trying to wake me up. The next couple of things we did were a bit of a blur to me since I was still trying to wake up. I only really woke up when I got out of the taxi and was standing outside our hotel. I caught my breath as I looked around. Vegas. I was in Vegas!. I had to stop myself from doing a happy dance right there and then. Apparently though I hadn't concealed my excitement enough as I heard a few sniggers behind me. I turned to see Eddie and Christian behind me. Eddie put his hand on my shoulder

"Welcome to Vegas" he smiled

"kinda sucks you in doesn't it?" Christian added. I couldn't have agreed more.

"Its amazing" was all I could manage. I seen them smirk at me before going to help with the suitcases. I turned around from all the sights of the Strip and took in our hotel. It practically screamed **ROYAL**, Obviously only the best for our queen. It felt weird to say that, I mean I was on first name basis with the queen. Not that, that really meant much apparently since she hated being called by her formal name. Lissa ushered us all inside to the reception where she checked us in and started handing out keys. Once Adrian had received his he turned to me and smiled

"So what do you say _Virgin _fancy sharing a room with me" he put extra emphasis on the virgin word. He was referring to my name obviously not insulting me but the others looked at him in shock.

"Adrian! Are you trying to making some sick advance on Azra whilst insulting her?" Christian asked? He looked most shocked out of all them which surprised me since I hadn't really spoken to him. Well any of them really. I'd only really gotten to know Adrian and I still knew practically nothing about him. I looked around at their faces, there was a mixture of shock and awkwardness. Looking at Lissa's guardians in the distance I noticed one of them smirking but once he saw me glaring at him he went back to looking stone faced. It really did amaze me how they did that.

Adrian had began to defend himself to everyone

"What? Its her -" I decided to cut him off, I wanted to get out of reception since we'd just been standing here for the last ten minutes staring at each other. Plus I really didn't want them to know what my name meant!

"My joke!.. I made a joke on the plane with Adrian. Honestly! he's not like being sick or mean or anything!" I said desperately. I noticed Adrian smirk out of the corner of my eye and was making a mental note to step on his toes "accidentally" later. They didn't seem happy with my comment but no one really wanted to argue about it. Lissa eventually decided on going back to the original topic turning to Adrian

"Adrian your sharing with Eddie remember?" Adrian groaned

"Hey I'm not that bad!" Eddie exclaimed defensively

"I was just hoping for this lovely ladies company" he winked and pointed at me and I froze on the spot, half of me wanted to giggle and curl my hair around finger and the other half wanted to hide my face. I really wasn't used to boy's advances any more, after my last boyfriend broke up with me I never really got back on the dating scene.

All the couples were well.. coupled together and Lissa handed my key to me looking slightly guilty. I would be on my own, Rose realised too and instantly blurted out that she would stay with me if I wanted, I had almost considered taking her up on her offer when I looked up at Dimitri and saw a look of disappointment on his face it was only there for a second but I'd still seen it. I couldn't split those two up for my own selfishness of not wanting to sleep on my own.

"No! I'll be fine! Honestly, I don't mind sleeping on my own! ... Honestly" I sounded almost convincing and was pretty proud of my performance. I mentally patted myself on the back. She looked unsure at first but eventually gave in probably just wanting to get back to her room and relax.

"Okay, so I'm guessing everyone is going to want to go to their rooms and freshen up and then maybe we could meet at the hotel restaurant in say... two hours for some lunch?" Lissa asked looking around at everyone. My stomach grumbled thinking about food, I'd apparently slept through breakfast on the plane. I heard a laugh and looked up to see Christian shaking his head

"I guess you really are a Hathaway" I was about to ask him to explain but he and Lissa and their guardians were already in the elevator. I ended up waiting for it to come back down with Adrian and Eddie,

"Which room are you in then?" Eddie asked casually, probably just trying to make conversation. He seemed really kind like as if you could talk to him for hours. He was pretty good looking too. Hey! Its not my fault that I happen to be caught up in a group of gorgeous men.

"B13" I answered Looking at the blue keyring attached to the small key.

"Ha! No kidding, We're neighbours!" laughed Adrian. I suppressed a groan. Hiding it with a fake smile. Not that I wasn't happy with being close to Adrian and Eddie. It did make me feel safer especially since Eddie was a guardian, I guess Lissa had made it this way deliberately. Rose and Dimitri were on the same floor as Lissa (along with her other guardians), and Adrian and Eddie happened to be next door to me. I smiled at myself cracking Lissa's secret Plan. Adrian mistook my smile for my eagerness to be next to him. He winked at me. Thankfully the lift came and we found our room's. I said my goodbyes and see you later's and opened the door to my room. I'm surprised my jaw didn't hit the floor! I definitely couldn't open my mouth any wider. _Woah! _I thought taking in my surroundings. The room was absolutely amazing! The bed was huge! Definitely King sized. Maybe bigger. Can you get bigger than that? There was a sofa and plasma TV, a large glass coffee table with complimentary chocolates and mints. I took one of the mints and went around exploring my room.

"_Holy Shit!"_ I exclaimed looking around the bathroom. Massive just isn't the word. There was a jacuzzi bath and a separate shower. I could have probably fitted my bedroom back in Cardiff three times in here! I remembered that I only had two hours to myself before meeting back with everybody and decided on spending my time testing out the bath and just pampering myself to death. Well maybe not to death. But you get what I mean.

Forty minutes later I left the bathroom. You might have already guessed this but that bath. Was. Awesome. I really didn't want to get out. But the water had gotten completely freezing and I forced

myself to leave in the end. I started to unpack some clothes into the extremely large wardrobe. My hair was half dry by the time I'd finished, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Like Rose I had been gifted with a curvy body and large bust. I used to get plenty of attention from boys because of these reasons but as I said since my last boyfriend I kind of pulled myself away from flirting and dating and all that kinda stuff. I brushed my hair and decided on blow drying the rest of it dry. I had naturally Curly hair, some people might have found it a nuisance but I loved it, of course the red wasn't a natural colour. It was bright bright red but I liked it it was a real conversation starter too. Often people would walk up to me and be like "wow I love your hair" most of those were probably Rihanna fans though. Once my hair was dry I back combed it a little to stop it looking too pristine. I preferred messy curls and waves to just outright tidy ringlets. I applied a bit of mascara and lip gloss. I looked at my watch _half hour to go_ I thought. I tried to pick an outfit as slowly as I could. But even that only took up five minutes. I'd settled on a pair of acid wash skinny jeans and a white vest top. I chucked a chequered shirt on over it leaving it open like a jacket. I'd even tried to waste time by putting an effort into choosing matching shoes but it was no good, I already knew what ones I wanted to wear. My pink suede Dr Martins. I loved these boots. I practically lived in them. They where one of my Christmas present from my parents. I did consider for a while not wearing them because I was mad at them but quickly brushed that idea out of my mind. Thinking of my parents I remembered the note I'd left them before I left.

_Dear Anna and Joseph (if that's even your real names)_

_I had some guests today. You might recognise one of their names. Rosemarie HATHAWAY! Yes. My sister. She offered me a chance to go to Vegas with her and her friends and I accepted. I'd appreciate if you didn't interfere. This is something I need to do. I cant believe you guys didn't tell me. You'd have still been my parents. The people I love and the people bought me up for 18 years. I'm nearly 19 and you didn't once think of saying "hey you know what your adopted!" _

_I'll call you in a few days once my head is clear._

_Love_

_Azra. _

"Come here you beauties!" I said whisking my shoes up and putting them on my feet. I checked the time and sighed. Giving up I decided to go down early thinking that at least I could have a quick look around anyway. When I got to reception I was surprised to see everyone standing there talking.

"your early!" I announced to the group.

"Rose was hungry" Christian said. Dimitri chuckled and Rose patted her stomach.

"what I wouldn't give for a chocolate glazed do-nut" she said thoughtfully. Everyone laughed. Including me.

"Don't worry Rose, you'll be stuffing your face before you know it!" Eddie exclaimed!

And sure enough she was. I thought I ate a lot. But there are just no words to describe how much she ate. The restaurant had a buffet table at the far end, filled with chinese food. She had a hard time carrying her plate back to the table – balancing all that food and making sure it didnt fall off. We'd all finished our meals and we watched Rose eat in awe. She finished her last Rib and set the bone down on the table. Even though at one point I'd been convinced she was going to eat that too!

"So, Azra how're you liking Vegas so far?" asked Dimitri. I think this was the first time he spoke to me, I kinda figured he was shy or just anti-social so I wasn't expecting a conversation to start with him.

"Um, Yeah its pretty awesome!" I said off guard. He nodded in agreement and I smiled awkwardly across the table. There was silence for a couple of minutes until Lissa spoke,

"So, we have a few spare hours before any evening entertainment happens so what do you want to do? We could walk around and explore the shops or if you want to split up in separate groups and do our own thing then we can?" she looked around the table expectantly. I noticed Rose and Dimitri look longingly at each other, something told me they'd rather be in their room right now.

"Um well Dimitri and I are pretty tired we were going to go for a nap.." she avoided looking into anyone's eyes in case she gave herself away.

"Yeah right Hathaway!" Christian laughed. She glared at him but got up and caught hold of Dimitri's hand, She hugged Lissa and the two of them left.

"Your awfully quiet Adrian" I glanced at him sideways, I saw him grin and he replied

"I guess I'm just captivated by your beauty, Or is it your extra tight jeans?" he winked at me and never wiped the grin of his face. I laughed, embarrassed.

"They're not that tight. They fit perfectly" I defended myself.

"Oh I quite agree, they definitely fit you perfectly" his grin lessened a little into something more seductive. I couldn't help but smile back. _Crap._ This guy definitely knew how to charm the ladies.

Eddie coughed awkwardly and I felt my cheeks warm a little. I laughed awkwardly, hoping someone would say something soon. Thankfully they did.

"Actually I'm feeling quite tired too Christian" Lissa said whilst doing something funny with her eyes. I'm guessing she was trying to hint at him for some uh.. alone time but whatever she was doing kinda made her look half crazy and half drunk. I had to stop myself from laughing. Christian hadn't noticed the funny side. He got the message clear as day. He stood up and tried to hurry Lissa out of the room.

"We'll meet you at the bar later!" she managed to shout before being rushed away. Their guardians followed and I saw the same guy who had smirked at me earlier smiling at me again. I was a bit taken back when I realised he was looking at me. I remembered that he had laughed Earlier when Adrian had called me a virgin. I wanted to talk to him, ask him why he had laughed. He was either cruel and laughed at Adrian branding me as a virgin or he knew my name. He must have heard Lissa and Rose talk about operation kidnap me so, maybe he'd heard them say, Azra at one point. The last one seemed less likely but I didn't want to believe he was cruel, the way he looked at me when he walked out the door.. and the smile. Well it seemed .. nice. Adrian cleared his throat in an obvious way and smiled.

"looks like you have competition" Eddie stated, he'd seen the guy smile at me. Obviously he didn't think it was a cruel smile either.

"So, what do you guys want to do? Everyone else is off having sex" I stated bluntly.

"well" Adrian began. I cut him off mid sentence -

"How about we take a look at the shops around here?" I suggested quickly. Adrian smirked at the change of subject but they both agreed to go, we handed our plates to the waitress collecting plates and glasses and left the hotel. We wandered down a whole street of random shops. We found this really cool trinket shop and I found some pretty wooden beaded bracelets. I was about to buy them when I realised something.

"Shit!" I cursed looking into my purse.

"What?" Eddie asked worried. Him being pretty much on guardian mode meant that he always thought someone was in danger.

"I just realised, I didn't change any money over into dollars. I've got like no money." I look around apologetically at the stall owner, he muttered something that sounded a lot like "stupid tourists" I walked off embarrassed. Eddie followed me

"So I guess we need to find you somewhere to change your money over then?" I nodded. I'd never been to America before. Let alone Vegas. I had no idea where to go. I didn't even know how to exchange money. A few minutes later Adrian caught up with us,

"where'd you get caught up to? Did some girl have more than a centimetre of cleavage on show?" I asked sarcastically. Eddie laughed at me and Adrian stopped and handed me a brown paper bag. He was grinning. _Oh god_ I thought _What has he done now? _I opened the bag to find 5 of the wooden beaded bracelets I had wanted to buy. I frowned.

"Adrian, you shouldn't have bought these!" I exclaimed guiltily.

"Oh relax! They were like $2 each" he was lying I knew the real price, Hence why I was only going to buy one or two.

"Adrian-" I'd started to protest and to tell him to take them back

"look, you like the bracelets don't you?" he asked.

"yes bu-"

"No buts, just accept them and say thank you" I gave him a huge smile.

"Thank you" I said, he returned my smile. I still felt pretty bad about taking them though i'd know him around 12 hours. It just didn't seem right to be taking gifts from him.

"Woah! don't get all like gushy on me guys" Eddie joked. I laughed back

"No chance" I said glancing sideways at Adrian. He was looking at me too. I couldn't help but laugh. We spent the rest of the time out searching for somewhere to exchange money only for Adrian to tell us they do it back at the hotel. Eddie and I both shot him our best glares when he'd told us. But he just laughed it off and said that he was having too much fun watching my expression "go funny" when we would get lost. Adrian had tried recreating the look but failed claiming that I was the master of them. He even pretending to bow down to me at one point. Which cracked Eddie up. In the end I gave in and laughed along with them. All in all today had been good! I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I walked back to the hotel with my two newest friends. We found the money exchange booth pretty quick, it was near the casino part, which I guess was only fitting, tourists come in change their money then spend it all straight away in the casino. Adrian caught me looking into the casino. He must have mistaken my staring for longing.

"too bad your not old enough to get in there" he whispered into my ear. I have to admit that his mouth being so close to my neck and my ear kind of sent shivers down my spine. I tried to control myself hoping he hadn't noticed and turned around with my most flirty smile.

"actually I have a drivers licence in my purse that says I'm 21." I produced it from my bag and held it out to him.

"but your n-" he stopped himself in his tracks, "its fake?" he whispered. I nodded. His grin got wider and he looked at me in amazement. Even Eddie seemed a little shocked he laughed at me and shook his head.

"I guess your more of a rebel than I thought" Adrian admitted. But something stayed in my mind. _More of a rebel than I thought._ So he hadn't thought I could be rebellious? I don't know why it pissed me off as much as it did. How could he even assume that after only knowing me a few hours? I guess the thought of people thinking I didn't have a back bone kinda pissed me off. I may not drink a lot or wear slutty clothes or parade my ass around for guys to touch but that doesn't make me spineless. I always thought of myself as elegant. I'd always fantasized about being the girl who would walk around a party in a long red satin dress that clings to her curves and bust with loose curls hanging around her shoulders. Red pouty lips and a glass of champagne in her hand. You know. Elegant but not like uptight just a hint of sexiness. Like the Jessica rabbit of humans. I guess I'd been lost in thought for a while since when I came back to reality Adrian and Eddie were staring at me Both amused.

"I can be rebellious!" I snapped. I guess I'm really not very good at shouting at people since every time I do they kind of just look at me in disbelief or humour. Like Adrian was now.

"I'm sure you can," he smirked and looked away. I growled in my head. _Ass_

"fine! I'll prove it too you, how can I show you that I do actually have a spine?" I was smiling at him in a bitchy way. The smile that kind of says "your an ass hole"

"Tonight," he looked into my eyes. I felt a challenge coming on. I'm extremely competitive and rarely did I ever lose. He carried on "let your guard down, have more than one drink. And well.." he pointed to a sign on the door to the casino it said karaoke competition. _Shit._ I have terrible stage fright. Like really bad but hey if im going to have a few drinks before hand It would calm my nerves right? I couldn't back down now. Adrian would never let me live it down but on the other hand, what if I got up on stage and everyone boo'd or I fell on the stage or worse – off it. I came back to reality to see Adrian looking smugly at me and that really made my mind up for me. I wanted to knock the smug look off his face.

"fine, your on" I smiled.

"Woah! I want in on this" Eddie laughed.

"fine, I bet that you, Azra Arabella Kelly will back down, you'll probably have a drink or two then make an excuse and go back to your room." Adrian had a playful smile on his face. It made me want to smack his and then kiss him. I scoffed.

"okay! And I bet that I Azra Arabella Kelly will not back down, I'll have a few drinks have fun and best of all _win _the karaoke competition" I knew it wasn't the safest bet but what they didn't know was that I had a weapon. My voice. I'd had singing lessons a few years back. I was even in a stage production at the local theatre. I was good, but I didn't know if I was _that_ good.

"Eddie?" I looked up at him expectantly, waiting for his decision

"I'm going with Adrian" he looked down guiltily. I glared at both of them.

"Fine! What does the winner get?" I asked. Adrian smiled

"their pride"

"and the loser?" I was guessing the opposite of having their pride. Knowing Adrian it was something completely daft.

"the loser, has to perform a strip tease on stage" I laughed at him.

"you know you could loose right?" Eddie looked like he agreed with me

"yeah Dude-" Adrian cut Eddie off with a look that said "_we wont lose!" _

"well I look forward to tonight, when I get a personal strip tease, from two sexy men" _Crap. _I hadn't meant to say the last bit, I'd been thinking it but it was never supposed to come out of my mouth.

They both laughed at me, and I laughed it off pretending I was actually meant to say it and that it was a joke. We decided to go back to our rooms to get ready for the night. Once we reached our doors. Eddie said goodbye and waited for Adrian to follow through the door but when Adrian didn't follow him Eddie thought best to mumble something and close the door.

"shouldn't you be preparing your best undies?" I smirked "I mean the whole hotel is going to be seeing them tonight" I winked.

"I have a feeling the tables will very much be turned, although I'm sure you'll be truly disappointed when you don't get to see my super hot bod" he was moving in close to me with a very seductive look on his face. I couldn't help but laugh at his words _"super hot bod" _he leaned in so our faces were almost touching each other. I couldn't help my drag my eyes to his lips. Mine started to tingle sort of yearning for his touch. Instead of going for my mouth he turned his head and whispered into my ear.

"You can laugh, but I know you think I'm sexy, you told me so remember" he moved his head so it was directly in front of my face again. I saw his eyes watch my mouth as I started to breath loud and ragged breaths. He stepped back and looked at me, well it almost felt as though it was around me like he could see something surrounding me. He chuckled to himself.

"You just proved my point, if only you could see what I see" he looked my body up and down, gave me another seductive smile and opened his door.

"I look forward to tonight!" he said before closing the door. I stayed there for a moment. _What the __hell just happened!_ I walked into my room still breathing hard and still astonished at what happened. I'd decided to talk a quick walk around the hotel to clear my head so I wasn't next door to Adrian and thinking about him. I decided on going to tell Rose, Dimitri, Lissa and Christian about the plans for tonight, leaving out the part about the bet. They seemed pleased with us all going to the bar together. I walked out of Lissa's room and looked up to see the familiar smile I'd seen twice today already. He had a light tan – sort of like mine and his hair was dark brown, short and messily pushed back so some of his fringe would hang down the one side of his face. One thing that I mostly noticed (apart from the smirk) were his eyes. They were big and brown. He was - well gorgeous. I needed to find a new word to describe good looking dudes because well gorgeous doesn't quite cut it for some.

"Is something funny?" I asked a bit impolitely if I'm honest. He didn't seem bothered though.

"Nope." he said putting emphasis on the p to make a popping sound.

"So then why do you keep smirking at me?" he did it again and I couldn't figure out weather I wanted to punch him or stay and talk. I felt sort of mesmerised by him. It was strange.

"Your name, Azra, I know what it means, When your _friend_ mentioned what it meant and you tried to cover it up – well it was just amusing." he smiled again. But I couldn't help notice the way he'd said friend, it sort of sound disgusted. I chose to ignore it though since I didn't see the point in arguing.

"So, are you Turkish?" he nodded.

"well my mother is, my dad's American" he looked at me as if that was all the explanation I needed. when I blinked a few times not saying anything he sighed and continued.

"My sister's middle name is Azra," he looked at me amused

"ah" I said understanding. "poor kid!"

"if you knew her you wouldn't say that" he laughed.

"Speaking of names, What's yours?" I asked. He looked at me in a way that I couldn't quite make out I guess that he was probably deciding weather to tell me or not seems as I wasnt a guardian or anyone relevant to him or Lissa.

"Guardian Sevim" he stated. I sighed.

"What's your first name?"

"Why do you want to know?" he asked with a small smirk playing on his lips.

"I'm not a guardian, so I don't need to call you by your formal name, Plus" I threw on the man eater smile I'd seen Rose use on Dimitri. "I'll need your first name when I tell me friends about the hot guy I just saw" _oh GOD! Did I just say that? I don't think that's even flirting that's just- plain cheesy. Ugh! Was I using chat up lines now? _He chuckled.

"My, my aren't we eager... its Nathan" I smirked back

"That's not very Turkish"

"I said that my Dad was American, plus your name is Turkish but yet your accent isn't, what is that by the way?"

Who's eager now?" I said winking. "its a welsh accent." I eyed him. He was looking back at me, sort of, he was doing the same thing Adrian had been doing earlier.

"Well its.. nice" he finally said and smiled. I was about to smile back when I sudden thought popped into my head.

"Wait – your dad picked your name? I thought moroi blokes didn't tend to stay around once the baby is born?" he looked surprised by my question. I hoped I hadnt offended him. I guess I should learn to keep some questions to myself.

"Are you speaking from experience?" he asked sarcastically.

"Actually I found out I was adopted yesterday, I've been living with humans until Rose – my sister came and told me what I really was - a dhampir." I saw a look of regret flash through his eyes and just like that it was gone. I wonder how they do that?

"Sorry to hear that," he said awkwardly "you say your a dhampir?" he sounded confused.

"Yep, apparently, here I am in person all 5 ft 2 of me – dhampir" I nodded.

"ah" thinking our conversation was over I turned and walked away.

"Goodbye Nathan Sevim"

"There's something else to you, you know" hesitantly I turned around and saw him frowning.

"what?" I asked confused.

"There's another side to you" he looked confused at me at first and then looked deep in thought and bit his lip. _What was that about?_ I thought.

"Isn't there two sides to everybody?" I asked thoughtfully. He smiled and with that I walked off back to my room. _That was so odd! First I try and flirt with him and then he says crazy stuff. Weird._

I checked the time and soon realised I had half an hour to get ready. _Shit_. How long had I been talking to that guy? I stared into my wardrobe looking for something sexy to wear, I wanted to be confident in every single way. Including my looks. I'd decided on a killer black dress I bought a while ago. I've never worn it since my parents thought it was too provocative, I don't even know why I bought it. I guess fate wanted me to wear it. It was tight, hugging my curves and chest, I smiled at my reflection in the mirror, I've never worn anything like this before. Everything usually had a hemline that at least reached my knee but this came to halfway down my thight. I touched up my make-up adding a bit of red lipstick in. I wore a pair of bright red heels. Matching my hair and lipstick and I made sure to wear the bracelets Adrian had bought me. I looked back at my reflection and decided that, I looked good. Almost sexy. Just the confidence boost I needed. Tonight I was going to be a total bad ass. Well probably not but I refuse to let Adrian and Eddie win.

I decided to take the steps instead of the elevator since I was late and the elevator was taking ages to come back to my floor. I'd started to regret it until I walked into the lobby and saw a few guys heads turn my way. _Woah_ I'm so not used to this attention. I smiled awkwardly and walked towards the bar I caught sight of Adrian and everyone all gathered waiting for me, I saw Adrian's eyes widen for a moment before he smiled and looked my body up and down he nodded as if he was saying he approved. I glanced towards Eddie and saw the same look. This was just going to make it so much better when I win I thought.

"Woah, Azra, you look … amazing!" Lissa admitted. I couldn't help but smile. "Oh and I love your bracelets"

"Oh thanks! … Adrian bought them for me" their heads quickly glanced towards Adrian, probably in shock but then he's probably known for splurging his money.

"I can be nice!" he said defensively. Crossing his arms in front of his chest. I laughed at him and couldn't help but notice how good he looked. He was wearing a tight fitted shirt, it wasn't too tight but tight enough to admire. He was wearing jeans and some sort of brown dress shoe. Fancy and no doubt expensive. Adrian and I had been stuck with getting the first round - Well Adrian offered to buy everyone drinks and told me I had to help him carry them. Isn't he charming? I couldn't help but notice his eyes trace over my body every now and again

"you should concentrate on where your walking you know, you might walk into something"

"just admiring the view" he smiled. I smiled back as we reached the bar, Adrian had ordered everyone the drinks they asked for – mainly cocktails or beer. He turned to me and playfully smiled turning back to the bartender and muttering something, I didn't hear a word he said but I understood as soon as the bartender handed Adrian A large bright yellow drink. My drink apparently since Adrian had handed it to me.

"_What_ is this?" my eyes widened, he chuckled and leaned in towards me

"Not scared are you?" I scoffed at him.

"Not one little bit" with that he grabbed a tray and handed it to me and placed various different shots and cocktails onto it.

"Adrian-" I began but a soon as I saw the smug smile on his lips I stopped in my tracks. "never mind," I finished. Sitting back at the table he unloaded the trays contents and placed half of them in front of me , my eyes got wider every time he placed a new on the table. I looked up to see everyone else just as surprised.

"Adrian? Why're you trying to get my sister drunk?" it was so odd hearing Rose say that I was her sister. I still was far from being used to hearing it. I couldn't help but smile at her though. I'd always been a bit of a loner in school. Not in the geeky way as in everyone hated me but my class mates annoyed me and I found it hard to actually hold a conversation with any of them. I was sort of friends with this one girl – Jenny for a while but for some strange reason she moved away without even muttering a word to anyone about it. Even though Rose and I were far from being close something warmed inside of me at the thought of having a sister.

"actually we had a little bet" he confessed. Rose nodded but frowned at Adrian still not convinced. Then satisfied she turned back to Lissa and carried on her conversation. Christian stared in amazement at all the drinks. After a few minutes I realised he'd stopped unloading drinks and was expecting me to to drink them straight away. His smile grew bigger. I looked at Eddie who was sat with his arms crossed and one eye brow raised. He didn't think I could drink these, Even I was doubting that I couldn't.

"Drink up" Adrian said as he lifted back a shot of his own he swallowed it without even a wince. I looked back at my little arrangement of drinks, I placed a few of the shots in a line. I thought it would be worse if I did them singularly and feel the burn of the alcohol each time than if I did them quickly one after the other. I inhaled deeply and lifted shot by shot to the back of my throat and swallowed. Once I finished my 6th shot and slammed it on the table I noticed the room spinning and all the different tastes in my mouth made me feel nauseous but I refused to vomit. The burning went after a while and I opened my eyes and attempted to smile smugly at Adrian but as soon as my eyes were open properly I noticed that my vision was slightly blurry. I blinked a few times in a row as if to try and wipe away my dizziness. I took in a deep breath and turned back to Adrian

"See, easy.." I lied. He chuckled at me

"Yes, I can see that" he joked. Eddie laughed along with him and soon the whole table was laughing. I didn't see what was so funny myself but after hearing them laugh I couldn't help but giggle along either – I blame the alcohol. I smiled a lop sided smile and took a sip of my cocktail to hide my tipsiness. I know that experienced drinkers probably wouldn't have been affected at all by the shots but for me it was lethal. I kept sipping my cocktail and after the first few sips I started to feel a burning in my throat worse than what I had after 6 shots.

"Adrian – what the hell is in this?" I demanded.

"Are you backing out?" he smirked. _God_ I'd had just about enough smirking for one day. Everyone I talked to today seemed to smirk atleast once in our conversation or do one of those evil sarcastic smiles. It was annoying me. A Lot.

"No i'm not! I did the shots didn't I? So will you stop smirking and just tell me what's in the drink?" I tried to put fierceness into my words, to make them sound like a warning but he just chuckled at me.

"vodka, sambuca, whiskey and a bit of rum oh and some lemonade of course" oh yeah of course the lemonade, I was drinking a death cocktail but dont forget the lemonade!

"is that even safe to drink?" I motioned towards my drink. He seemed to consider this for a while but finally made his decision

"perfectly safe" he hid his grin by taking a sip of his drink. I shook my head in astonishment.

"I'm not coming back from this tonight, you know that don't you?" I asked to Rose. She laughed and said i'd be fine.

"Don't worry! I used to drink like this all the time! You'll be fine honestly! Plus if you agreed to this bet that I cant really do anything.." she said smiling. Great so apparently there was some guardian rule that says you have to protect someone- unless they've made a bet. _Brilliant._ I rolled my eyes and turned back to Dimitri remembering my earlier conversation with Nathan.

"Hey, Dimitri do you know Lissa's guardian – Nathan?" he looked confused at me for a while and I rolled my eyes and corrected myself "Guardian Sevim?" his eye lit up in realisation. I wanted to laugh but shook it off claiming a bug had landed on me. That earned me a few odd stares of course but Dimitri carried on the conversation regardless.

"Oh! Yeah he's not long joined the royal guard but I know him from a while back" he seemed to be lost in memories for a while but then turned back to me. "why?" he asked.

"Um, I was just talking to him earlier thats all" I answered awkwardly I noticed Adrian shifting out of the corner of my eye. I had to hold back a smirk (yes even I was doing those now) could he really be jealous? After a day? I was about to tell everyone at the table about my weird conversation with him (minus my awful chat up line) when a voiced boomed over us all. Looking around for the source I found a guy on stage talking into a microphone.

"okay everyone! So welcome to the karaoke competition, I hope everyone who wants to participate has filled in their entry slips" a few cheers came from the crowd to show that ofcourse they had! I was about to say to Adrian _"oh no! Looks like I cant do it.. you didn't get a slip. Oops looks like no singing for me." _but as soon as I had turned to him I saw him holding up a slip with my name on it. I glared at him and took it out of his hands.

"Hoping i'd forget?" he winked.

"No, I'm excited actually! I was more worried that you hadn't got one" I sipped my death cocktail to hide my lie. He raised an eye brow at me but I ignored it. I had to win this bet tonight or I'd be fronting my undies on stage for everyone to see.

"okay so," - the voice continued over the microphone. "Were gonna go in alphabetical order-"

_fuck. _Adrian laughed and clapped his hands together.

"first up is Azra!"

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**So thats the second chapter! Hope you enjoyed it! **

**Please leave any comments or ideas you might have! **

**Thanks for taking the time to read this!**

**I hope I potrayed Adrian right, I wanted the right amount of sarcasm and arrogance mixed with the right amount of nice Adrian haha!**

**Oh and what do you think of Nathan? **

**_Kristina x_  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay so! this is the third chapter, hopefully from here things can start to get more interesting! please feel free to leave any advice or critisisms you may have! **

**Hope you enjoy it! don't forget to review and all that :)**

**_kristina x_**

* * *

"_first up is Azra!" _

My stomach lurched. I was thinking I should just forfeit when I chanced a glance back at the table, Rose was looking dubious towards Dimitri. I realised that everyone on this table was doubting me. It was only karaoke but my stage fright was so bad that just thinking about being up there infront of all those people made me feel sick to my stomach but the fact that these strangers though I had no guts really annoyed me. Hadn't I just jumped onto a plane with a bunch of strangers? That seems pretty ballsy to me! I grabbed my cocktail and downed it, letting the drunkenness take over my body, which it definitely did. Suddenly singing karaoke seemed like a great idea. Yeah I should definitely sing karaoke. I walked up to the dude on the stage, he was tall and lean with a 70's moustache. He looked up and down at me looking surprised. I'd forgotten in my sudden drunkenness about my tight fitting dress that was starting to ride up a little from walking up the steps to the stage.

"Well hello, lovely lady" he winked suggestively at me staring up and down my body. "and what will you be performing for us tonight?" I swear that he wasn't actually talking to my face his eyes were sort of lingering around my chest. I shot him a disgusted look but of course he didn't see that since it wasn't my chest performing the dirty look. I grabbed the microphone out of his hands and stood in front of the stand.

"I kissed a girl by Katy Perry" I chirped. His eyes widened in surprise but the music started anyway. I took a deep breath and flashed the man eater smile that I'd practised in the mirror earlier. This was it, If I lost I'd be back up here later showing everyone my pants. I needed to impress!

"_this was never the way I planned, not my intention" _I started singing, I walked to the edge of the stage and leaned down singing to a few of the guys in front of the stage, I knew that to win this I have to pull out all the stops, so flirting whilst singing seemed like a good option to me. I walked to the bar on the second line to fit in with the words "I_ got so brave drink in hand" _I took a glass of champagne from the side and drank it in-between sentences. Walking through the crowd I took turns in stroking different guys shoulders and singing towards then suggestively, I earned a few whistles and admiring smiles from a few of them and made my way to the table I sat on Adrian's lap for a few seconds and then made my way to Eddie and bent down so my face was near his, knowing full well the view I was giving to the others – in particular Adrian. I walked around Eddies chair letting my hands drag from his chest around his shoulders. I was about to make my way back to the stage when I noticed Nathan – smirking. Again. I walked over to him and put my hand on his chest – still singing of course. I walked around him keeping our bodies close and when I reached the front of his body I turned around and dragged my back downwards sort of shaking my butt, he was trying to keep his guardian mask on but I heard him suppress a low groan. I smiled in my success and walked towards to stage to finish my song. I lifted the microphone in the air as I did and heard claps and cheers, I smiled around and noticed a few guys where even on their feet. I scanned the small crowd to find my table and noticed they where all on their feet cheering too! I giggled and handed the microphone back to the sleazy guy, who stood in shock before introducing the next act. I downed the glass of champagne I'd been carrying with me and made my way back to the bar, ordering a few drinks and shots to take back to the table. Not just for me obviously. I received more applause when I got back to my table and Adrian even gave a quick bow.

"not just the master of funny faces, but also the master of singing songs about kissing girls" he laughed and continued "congratz!" he shouted. We laughed and talked some more whilst I still carried on drinking, everyone in the circle were having their own conversations, Eddie Christian and Lissa were discussing something and I heard Christian say

"No but its not actually that hard is it Liss?" I decided not to ask. Rose and Dimitri were whispering things into each others ears and I couldn't help but smile thinking it was sweet. Adrian and I talked about random stuff that made no sense at all. If any sober person was listening to us they'd probably think we were crazy. In-between talking we'd stop every now and again to drink another shot or sip a cocktail.

"Adrian, your hair is so pretty. How do you do it?" I said in slurred amazement. He looked back at me grinning, he put his hand on his heart

"Thank you! I get out the shower, dry it and put this like stuff in my hair that comes in this like tub thing and then I do this" he did a movement that involved him shaking his head all over the place and waving his hands around. He looked completely crazy! And I doubted that he actually did this but since I was too drunk I just stared in amazement like it was the most awesome thing I've ever seen. When he lifted his head back he looked a little dazed for a moment then did a lopsided smile. Considering he'd told me he could hold his drink he wasn't doing a great job of hiding his slures and stumbles. I glanced up at the guardians in the back and noticed Nathan wasn't standing in the normal guardian stance instead he stood standing in front of one of them talking and even laughing every now and again. I don't know why but I felt the need to talk to him. Every time I saw him I felt like I had to be near him. It was so odd.

"I'll be right back" I said to Adrian, he nodded and carried on drinking his drink, turning to Eddie to start a conversation. I had to use the table to pull myself up and to steady my stance.

I tried to make it look like a complete coincidence that I was just walking past Nathan not actually seeking out conversation with him, so I walked to the door he was standing by and when I saw him I faked a double take as if I hadn't seen him there.

"Oh hi Nathan!" I smiled innocently, he chuckled more to himself than to me

"I saw you looking at me you know, plus your a terrible actor" I laughed awkwardly, embarrassed at my plan being foiled.

"I just wanted to see what you though of my … performance" I smiled playfully at him. Of course he and I knew that I was referring to the part where I dance by him, well more like on him. He smiled the same smile back and nodded at me.

"I'm sure that every man in the room right now feels the same way, and I'm sure you know how we all rate your performance" I giggled. Was he admitting he liked it? Or more to the point liked me? I'm not sure why I liked this guy all I knew was that I liked flirting with him. Well I like flirting with him when I'm not spurting out cheesy chat up lines.

"so are you off duty now?" I asked avoiding his eyes. I didn't want him to think I was asking for his company. I mean I wouldn't have mind him joining us but I kinda didn't want him to be around later when they announced the winner. Just in case.

"I have been for 2 hours now" he nodded.

"What?, but you've been standing at the back doing guardian...stuff" I stated in shock. He nodded.

"nothing else to do." he shrugged.

"your in Vegas!" I waved my hand around to show him, in case he hadn't realised. He looked around pretending to be shocked

"your right, Wow!" I glared at him

"you could have sat with us you know,"

"Yes I'm sure everyone would have loved that, one of Lissa's unknown guardians joining you for drinks" I looked at him confused.

"Rose, Eddie and Dimitri are guardians, plus I know you and Dimitri does too" he smirked

"How'd you know? have you been asking about me?" I did a strange movement that was half a shrug and half a nod. It came off as a sort of crazy dance move. He laughed and then frowned.

"Your drunk aren't you?" _crap. _Was I that obvious?

"Pfft, no! I am perfectly sober!" I tried to lean my one arm against the door handle to make myself look sober and cooler because apparently in my mind that would automatically prove that I was sober but unfortunately I misread the distance between myself and the door. I completely missed and would have fallen flat on my face if Nathan hadn't grabbed me quickly and pulled me towards him.

"Smooth move" his whispered into my ear. He had a sexy whispering voice. His voice was sexy normally, but when he whispered it sort of turned husky. It made me shiver and he chuckled.

"Now go join your friends, I'm going to bed"

"Is that an invitation?" I asked flirtatiously, Yep apparently I'm twice as bad at flirting when I'm drunk. He laughed at me and walked me back to the table to my disappointment.

"I believe this belongs to you?" he said to Rose. I smiled at her lopsidedly. She looked at me then at Nathan and then back to me.

"uh, yeah. Thanks.." she looked confused, probably worried id been running around naked or something. Nathan shook his head.

"Don't worry she was just wandering around, thought I'd bring her back before she does something she regrets" he aimed the last words at me. I felt my forehead crease into a frown. And I tried to glare at him but Rose distracted him by saying thank you. Dimitri even nodded his appreciation towards him. Nathan bowed towards Lissa and then turned around and left. _Odd. _I thought to myself. Why would I have regretted it? And what is it I would have regretted? Adrian interrupted my thoughts by pulling out my chair for me and shoving another shot into my hand. I was about to drink it when I heard Rose laugh.

"Don't you think you've had enough?" I considered this for a moment and then shook my head.

"Not really" I said seriously and I downed my shot to everyone's amusement. Eddie pulled his chair closer to Adrian and I.

"So, it's getting close to decision time huh?" he raised his eyebrow with a smile.

"Yup." I said putting emphasis on the p. "Ready to lose?" I asked with a playful smile creeping onto my lips.

"On the contrary, I'm ready to win" He smiled at me. _Woah! _He was very good looking when he smiled. I laughed off my staring and answered him back. Why were all the guys around here so good looking?

"your going to be extra gutted when I win you know, I'm wearing a thong" I winked and Eddie choked on his drink staring at me wide eyed. I looked at Adrian who had a grin plastered on his face. No doubt mentally picturing me in a thong.

"who wants to dance?" I asked suddenly. I'd been sat here pretty much all night and my feet wanted to actually move. I didn't want to be sat down doing nothing for the rest of the night. Dancing seemed like a great option. I dragged Eddie and Adrian onto the dance floor, Eddie had pulled Christian along saying he wasn't going in there (the dance floor) alone. Rose, Dimitri and Lissa sat laughing at Eddie and Christian dancing awkwardly. They were kinda just stepping from one side to the other. I on the other hand decided to go all out and was jumping around with my hands in the air singing along (badly) to the songs being played. Every now and again id turn and dance with Adrian who seemed to enjoy it just as much as I did. Our bodies would kind of rub against each other slightly when we danced. Not too much though. Just enough for us to tease one another. A bar maid came around the people dancing in the crowd offering cheap shots and Adrian being Adrian handed one to all of us. Handing a wad of cash to woman. It was definitely too much and her eyes widened when she seen it. She was hesitating and I could see that she wanted to give it back but in the end she decided to take it. Needless to say the drink was disgusting. It was a strawberry flavoured vodka shot and it was strong! It burned the back of my throat and I had to stop myself coughing. We danced around crazily until it was time for the competition winner to be announced. Christian, Eddie, Adrian and I were pretty steamed, We stayed on the dance floor nervously waiting to hear the results. Christian stared at us.

"what did you bet? Was it money?" I shook my head and he smiled. "what does the winner get?" he asked. Adrian answered him..

"their pride." Christian looked confused.

"Well what does the loser get then?" I laughed at him.

"the complete opposite" he laughed along with us still looking confused I don't think he really knew why he was laughing probably just to agree with us. Either that or it was the stupid amount of vodka shots we drank. The bar maid kept coming back to us and Adrian kept handing them out giving her too much money every time. He didn't even notice. I could barely stand from all the alcohol going to my head. A few minutes later we heard a voice too loud for a normal person.

"So is everyone excited?" the sleazy guy from earlier asked over the sound system. He looked like he'd been having a few drinks himself. His hair was messy and his shirt was un-tucked on one side. There were a few cheers from people here and there.

"So the staff and I have been working very hard on choosing the winner, it was tough since there was some pretty interesting acts tonight! But in the end we decided on the act that impressed us the most" I crossed my fingers behind my back where no one could see them.

"So! The winner of our karaoke competition tonight is..." I inhaled deeply. I noticed Eddie had tensed. I glanced at Adrian who seemed completely relaxed. Typical. The guy had decided to do one of those long pauses they do on TV shows like Pop idol and the X-factor.

"Azra!" my eyes widened in shock. I won! I'd actually won. I danced in excitement and turned to Eddie and Adrian. They too looked shocked and slightly worried. I had a massive grin on my face and I jumped about in front of them shouting

"YOU LOSE! Ha! In your face!" I walked up on stage to receive my certificate ( a piece of printer paper with my name and Congratulations on it) and a bottle of champagne. The guy tried to kiss me on the cheek but I dodged him quickly and ran back off the stage. Well I should say that I pranced off the stage since I was extremely happy my steps had extra bounce in them. My winning meant that soon myself and everyone in this bar would be witnessing Adrian and Eddie strip on stage. I grinned in satisfaction. I'd been dying to say "I told you so" but that just seemed far too childish right now! I'd say it in the morning to them instead. Adrian turned towards me and bent down to whisper in my ear.

"Guess you got what you wanted huh?" he kissed my ear and walked back to the table. My ear still tingled from Adrian kissing it. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Christian walked by the side of me back to the table.

"What is it exactly that Adrian and Eddie have to do?" he asked nervously.

"Don't worry you'll be finding out very soon!" I danced back to the table and received a round of applause from my fans (Lissa, Rose and Dimitri). To my surprise Dimitri actually looked fairly amused he even put enthusiasm into his applause.

"Thank you! Thank you! No, no I wont sign any autographs sorry!" I declared dramatically . This earned a few chuckles from everyone. I know it wasn't that funny and that they were probably just humouring me but still I felt good! I remembered the bottle of champagne in my hand and asked Adrian to open it whilst I retrieved some champagne glasses from the bar. Soon after the champagne bottle was passed around the table so everyone could fill their drinks. I allowed Eddie and Adrian to finish their glass before making them do their forfeit.

"So guys, I believe there's somewhere you have to be?" I reminded them with a wink. I heard Eddie groan and he and Adrian stood up and left for the stage. Adrian grabbed the microphone and talked loudly into it.

"So yes, congratulations to Azra on winning you lucky lucky lady, Me and my friend Eddie here would like to dedicate this little number too her since she has hinted many times that were both so sexy. Myself in particular. So this is for you Azra" He grinned into the crowd. Knowing Adrian he would probably enjoy this. Taking his clothes off in front of women was probably something he was used to anyway. Or so I've heard.

"what the hell are they doing?" Rose asked confused. I looked around to see everyone with the same expression on the face. Adrian had walked over to the "DJ" and when he came back to centre stage "_you can leave your hat on"_ had started playing. A few women had started to stand and cheer them on And sure enough in front of our eyes Adrian and Eddie began to take layer by layer off. I heard a surprise shout come from Lissa and Christian moaned "_I don't want to see this." _he covered his eyes and refused to look. Lissa was giggling at him and was deciding herself weather to look or not. I turned to Rose who had her hand clasped to her mouth laughing and Dimitri just looked plain surprised. Turning back to the stage I noticed Adrian dancing and really getting into the swing of things when he took his top off he swung it around and chucked it into the audience, I couldn't help but notice the slight definition of muscles. He looked good with clothes on but let me tell you he looked _amazing _with them off too! A lady in the front row had even chucked a dollar at him on stage. Eddie on the other hand was getting undressed very awkwardly. I almost felt sorry for him until I remembered that they were the ones who were so convinced they'd win and I'd back out of it. They bought this on themselves. I stood up and cheered them on anyway. Eddie had began awkwardly undoing the zip on his trousers when I shouted

"TAKE IT OFF EDDIE" he looked at me surprised but I was laughing too hard to realise. They got down to their underwear when hotel security came in and told them that unless they put their clothes back on they would call the police and have them charged with indecent exposure. Eddie immediately put his clothes on, he didn't want to get in trouble since he was a guardian. I was surprised he even agreed to it in the first place. He seemed the type to put his job first. It was harder for Adrian to follow though since he had chucked his shirt into the crowd, he walked around the crowd topless trying to find the lady harbouring his shirt he then had to bribe her with $10 to give it back to him. Which made the story twice as funny! They came back to the table and I was still giggling at them.

"Adrian you should really look into a career in stripping you know,You looked in your element up there!" he laughed at me.

"You just want to see me wiggling my hips in my boxers again" I laughed.

"oh Adrian, Sweet naïve Adrian. No one wants to see you do that ever again" I laughed. He gave me a sly smile that told me he didn't believe me. I smirked and looked towards Eddie who looked shocked in himself

"I cant believe I just did that" he admitted.

"Neither can I Eddie!" Rose laughed. Lissa laughed along with her.

"you could have warned me, I did _not_ wanna see that" Christian complained to me.

"Don't lie Christian I seen you peeking between your fingers" Rose joked. I laughed and Christian shot us both glares. We joked and laughed more and carried on drinking Champagne. It was fun. At the beginning of this trip I had started to regret coming, thinking that I'd never really fit into their group but now after joking around and having a laugh with everyone I was extremely glad that I was here. I hoped that these guys would soon be my friends. Dimitri suggested after a while that we should go back to our rooms and rest up, We all nodded in agreement and it wasn't until I stood up that I realised how drunk I was. I fell straight back onto the chair which buckled underneath me since I fell onto it sideways and fell straight to the floor. Rose ran to me to help me up.

"Woops" was all I could say before I started cracking up. She tried to help me walk but since I was falling all over the place she gave up and made Dimitri practically drag me back to my room. We were all squished into one elevator waiting to reach my floor. I would keep giggling randomly and Dimitri would look at me as if to say "shut up"

"You know Dimitri" I slurred "you should grow a beard" Everyone in the lift apart from Dimitri started cracking up. I couldn't stop giggling which would put me off balance and make me stumble into everyone. Dimitri held me up firmly. It was the same hold he'd used on me back in Wales. I couldn't help but notice how muscular his arms were. I wouldn't like to be in a fight with this dude. The elevator dinged to show we'd reached the floor and I stumbled out of the doors almost falling on my face. Dimitri picked me up and pretty much carried me to me room. Which I had thought was particularly funny. We reached my door and Adrian stood next to us obviously waiting for Dimitri to leave but when he didn't Adrian had decided to talk to me anyway.

"So, what do you say Azra, wanna join me for a few extra drinks?" I was about to accept when I was interrupted by Dimitri.

"Adrian, Azra is going to bed, I think you should do the same" I rolled my eyes at him but didn't protest. I knew that it wouldn't work. Dimitri was strong he could probably pick me up with one arm and chuck me in my room. He glared at Adrian until he went inside his room. Then Dimitri continued to get my key from my purse, He had asked me to get it since he didn't want to look through a "ladies" purse, but I couldn't see clearly and I had started shouting

"IM BLIND". He let me into my room and helped me onto my bed.

"get some sleep!" he said before walking out. I waited five minutes before sneaking back into the hall way and knocking onto Adrian's door. He answered within seconds and when he saw me he grinned his sexy grin and invited me in. Eddie was passed out face down onto his bed. Snoring. I laughed at him and turned to Adrian

"Wont we wake him up?" he shook his head

"Nah I was just chucking pencils at him and he didn't budge. We should be fine" we sat on his bed and he retrieved a bottle of Sambuca. He found two glasses in the bathroom that were obviously meant for swilling out your mouth after brushing your teeth, but we didn't care. He poured us each a drink. I sniffed it and was surprised to smell liquorice. I don't know weather Adrian had found out that I liked it or weather it was pure coincidence but I really like Liquorice. I even keep a little packet in my bag for when I get hungry.

"Mm" I moaned. Adrian looked up surprised at me. "It smells like liquorice" I stated. He chuckled.

"Taste it" he told me. Without a thought I picked up the glass and tilted some of the drink into my mouth. I moaned out loud again.

"I think I've just found my favourite drink ever!" I exclaimed. I drank some more of my drink and soon enough, too soon in my opinion my glass was empty. Adrian filled it back up for me looking amused.

"Your going to have the worst hangover ever tomorrow" he teased. He was probably right. I'd never ever drank this much. My body was going to hate me in the morning but right now I couldn't concentrate on that since Adrian was shifting his body closer to mine.

"Yeah but it'll be worth it, I've had a lot of fun tonight" I smiled up at him.

"Good, and I'm quite sure the highlight of your night happened to be when you saw me in my pants" he grinned cheekily at me.

"Well it was one of them" I admitted. He grinned at me and took a sip of his drink. "Adrian?"

"hmm?" he looked back up at me but I averted his gaze,

"What do you think I should do?" I knew it was a vague question but he understood what I meant without me needing to explain.

"Well that decision is entirely up to you" I sighed. "But you know you have a few weeks before you have to make any decision at all, you'll know the right choice when it comes to it" first I was surprised to hear such good advice from Adrian but then I realised I shouldn't be, he may be a tremendous flirt but that doesn't mean he cant be kind. I mean he did buy me bracelets earlier out of the blue.

"Thank you, for the advice and the bracelets I mean" I kissed him on the cheek to show my appreciation and when I was about to pull away from his face he put his hand behind my neck and pulled me towards him until our lips touched. At first it started out innocent well as innocent as a kiss could be but it grew into something deeper and more passionate I broke away at last to put my drink down. He did the same probably guessing where my thoughts were going. I jumped on top of him so that I was pretty much straddling him and I pressed my lips back onto his. The kiss kept growing more and more passionate, His hands ran down my back and onto my thighs, and I gasped as I felt his hands touch my skin under my dress. In one swift motion he had my dress over my head and onto the floor. He stopped kissing me for a second to look at my body, he bit his lip and then smiled

"you weren't lying about wearing a thong" I had on a white lace underwear set. White underwear had a tendency to enhance my tan and I always thought it was sexier. Apparently Adrian thought It was sexy too since I heard him groan. I pressed my lips back down on his a little more aggressively this time and Adrian responded. And woah! Was his response good. I let out a low moan as he traced his lips down my neck and chest. Finally lis lips found mine again and my hand were at his chest undoing his shirt. I got a little impatient and ripped the last few buttons I was expecting Adrian to scold me since it looked expensive but he didn't complain in fact his kissed me harder. I knew where this kiss was going and I wanted it. Badly. I traced my hands down his chest and was about to reach his trousers when he pulled away.

"Wait -" I stared at him until he continued. His breath was short and ragged. "We shouldn't do this, your drunk."

"Adrian I might be drunk but I still know what I want" I tried to press my lips against him again but he dodged my kiss instead his pressed his lips to my forehead.

"You'll regret this in the morning if I don't stop it now" I tried to protest but Adrian didn't listen. We stayed awake talking for a while and he stroked my hair well he tried to anyway – he kept getting his fingers tangled in my curls. After a while I feel asleep in Adrian's arms. I dreamt so many different things that night, First I dreamt I was back on stage but instead of the crowd cheering like they had earlier they ran at me like psychopath's trying to kill me. My next dream had been that I met my biological parents but they wanted nothing to do with me. They got worse and worse until I eventually woke up. My head was spinning and I did my best to look around the room. It wasn't mine. Looking over I saw that Eddie wasn't in his bed. _Crap_. I hope he didn't tell anyone about this. Especially since I was in my underwear attached to Adrian who happened to be topless. _Oh god! _Adrian! I looked around for a clock and once I found one I swore out loud, There was only 15 minutes left until breakfast ended. I had to un-peel myself from Adrian since our skin had stuck together. It was like peeling myself from leather on a summers day. When your sweat kind of makes you and the seat mould together. It was even harder since I couldn't move as fast as normal, I had an awful headache and the room was spinning. I looked around for my dress but after a minute of looking and not being able to find it I decided on chancing the run next door in my undies. I opened the door enough to poke my head through. _Phew._ The coast was clear I ran quickly to my door. I thought I'd made it when I had the key in the door, that was until I heard someone clear their throat behind me. _Bugger_. I hesitantly turned around to see Nathan Sevim staring at me with a god damn smirk on his face!

"I was told to come and wake you up but I can see quite clearly that your wide awake." my head still hurt and I didn't really fancy the scolding I was about to get. I remembered that I was in my underwear and my hands instinctively went to hide the bare skin on my body. He chuckled.

"its a bit late for that don't you think? You forget you were turned around when I found you" _shit_. I'd forgotten about that. Ugh! And I'm in a thong too.

"Well is that all you were told to do? Not that I'm not enjoying our little catch up but I'd like to get out of this hallway take a paracetamol and get dressed." I glared at him.

"actually I was told to escort you back too" ugh. Figures. I ordered him to turn around and count to ten then let himself in my room. I figured I'd be in the bathroom by then and could wrap a towel around myself. I brushed my teeth and tried to get my brush through my hair. It was no hope. My hair was too tangled and with no time for a shower I decided to just tie it back with a bobble. It didn't look to bad. It kinda looked as if I had styled it to be messy. I chucked one of my flower clips on the side of my hair and walked out the bathroom to find Nathan sat on my sofa.

"Your bed hasn't been slept in" he stated. What was this guy the bed police?

"how do you know I'm just not really good at making the bed?" I said walking towards my wardrobe. I rubbed my head.

"Well gathering from the way you keep clutching your head I'd say your too hungover too. Plus I saw you sneaking in a hotel hallway in your undergarments." he smiled at me. He was such a smart ass. I grabbed a pair of sunglasses and put them on since the light in my room was making my head worse and down stairs was going to be much more worse.

"I stayed with a friend last night" I answered not needing to explain any more to him. I grabbed clean underwear and a white loose spaghetti strap dress and went to the bathroom to get changed.

"I don't know how you do things back in Wales, but in America we don't tend to have to sneak back into our room's in practically nothing after staying with a friend" Wow I really didn't like his attitude right now.

"God! Why do you care?" I shouted, a little too loudly. My head started to hurt and I was sure there were little men jumping around in my brain right now. He stared at me in disbelief.

"You know what, I don't know" he said coldly._ Ouch. _Maybe I had that coming since I had just shouted at him but seriously what was up with this dude today? I chucked on the first pair of sandals I could find and told Nathan I was ready. We were walking to the hotel restaurant in silence. Uncomfortable silence and I decided to try and make peace with some conversation.

"I won last night by the way" I told him. He'd seen my performance last night and had even been apart of it.

"huh? Oh yeah I know" he didn't seem that interested but I carried on talking to him regardless.

"how? Did Lissa say?" I asked confused

"No I was in the room when they announced it" I looked even more confused now. Last night he had taken me back to Rose and left. He definitely wasn't in the room.

"I couldn't sleep so I came back down, I saw you dancing With Ivashkov so thought it best not interrupt you" more coldness. Nice. The way he was behaving told me that he definitely knew I was with Adrian last night. I cringed remembering it. Adrian had been the perfect gentleman whilst I well I was the exact opposite. Especially the gentleman part. Since I'm a girl.

"plus then I heard the guy say they were going to announce the winner so I just sat at the bar and waited"

"on your own?" I asked shocked

"Yeah. I didn't mind it. I only wanted one drink so didn't seem the point in joining anyone. I would have felt obliged to stay when I just wanted to get some sleep" I smiled. He stayed downstairs so he could see if I won. I don't care if he said it was because he couldn't sleep. I was sure it was a cover up.

"what?" he asked seeing my smile.

"Nothing, my head is feeling a little better that's all" he actually let a lot a small chuckle.

"Maybe you shouldn't drink so much next time."

Once we reached the restaurant he took his place back with the rest of the guardians and I sat on a seat next to Rose as I sat down I saw Eddie smirk at me. Oh god. He'd definitely seen me in all my glory this morning.

"finally up then? you might wanna grab some food now, breakfast finishes in like two minutes" Rose pointed the way to the breakfast area and I quickly walked to the buffet table and grabbed a grapefruit since I didn't think my stomach could handle much more this morning. I walked back to the table and noticed that Adrian had joined us. And he was sat opposite my seat. I hesitantly sat back down. I took my sunglasses off since my headache had near enough gone. It was still there but I could see people looking at me funny since I was wearing them inside. I could see Adrian looking at me but I did everything I could to avoid his gaze. I didn't touch my breakfast the whole time we sat at the table. Which felt like forever. All I could think about was coffee and made a promise to myself that I was definitely getting some as soon we had finished.

"So Azra, you enjoyed yourself last night then?" Christian asked. He was smiling. _Uh oh_. He couldn't possibly know I stayed with Adrian unless Eddie had told him I looked at Eddie and he too had a smile plastered on his face. I look backed to Christian shocked. He was frowning.

"don't tell me you don't remember winning the competition? And Adrian and Eddie ended up stripping on stage?" I exhaled in relief.

"Oh. Yeah of course I remember! I don't think I'll ever forget that" he laughed and agreed that he wouldn't either.

"Its mentally scarred me you know" I laughed at him. It probably has, he had looked pretty distraught when Eddie and Adrian had started taking off their clothes. Lissa had mentioned something about running errands and Christian offered to help. Which meant only Adrian and I were left at the table since Eddie and Rose were Lissa's guardians. They were the ones who stayed close to her so that she had protection from every angle. Nathan and the other guards had to stay in the back so they could see an attack coming first. Dimitri was Christian's guardian probably so he and Rose could be close together. I could see how pleased they were today to get to spend more time together. It was cute. I looked awkwardly at Adrian for the first time since he'd arrived and mumbled something about getting some coffee. To my dismay he followed my to the bar and sat next to me.

"Have I done something to offend you?" he asked. I shook my head but offered no verbal answer.

"Look, last night.. I didn't let it go any further than kissing." he thought I was annoyed at him because I woke up in my underwear in his room and thought the worse. But it wasn't that.

"exactly Adrian." I answered sighing. The guy came back with my coffee and handed me a spoon and some sugar and milk. Adrian stayed silent but looked confused.

"is that why your mad? Because we didn't go any further?" he looked surprised at me.

"No! I'm not mad okay I'm just.. well I'm embarrassed. You were a perfect gentleman last night Adrian and I was all over you when I hardly knew you. I never do that." I wanted him to understand that I wasn't some girl who had one night stands all over the place. To my surprise he chuckled a little.

"You shouldn't be embarrassed, for once in your life you were risky last night, so you kissed me when you were drunk. I think you should consider it an achievement" I scoffed at him.

"because I kissed you?" I asked glaring at him.

"No! Because for once in your life you didn't worry about the consequences you did something because you wanted too" I frowned. I supposed when you look at it like that he was right. So what if I kissed him? He didn't let it get any further it was harmless. I took a sip of my coffee and starting mulling things over. I decided to talk to Adrian again.

"Thank you, I'm glad you stopped us. It's different having drunk sex with your boyfriend or something you know in the morning their still gonna be there but not with someone you've just met, no matter how much I liked you or wanted it." I smiled at him. It was a small smile since I was still embarrassed about the whole thing. Adrian grinned at me

"I told you that you fancied me" he laughed. I laughed too. Just typical I say thank you and the one thing he picks up on is that I said I liked him.

"what're you doing today? Everyone else is off running errands"

"well I was going to go to the casino for a bit, would you care to accompany me?" he asked putting on an English accent. I laughed at him.

"That was terrible Adrian! Well I'm guessing you'll be in there all day right?" he nodded.

"probably, nothing better to do"he shrugged.

"Well I think I'm gonna take a walk first. My headache hasn't completely gone so I don't think the casino will be so good for me straight away" he offered to come with me first but I could tell he didn't really want too.

"no! I'll be fine. I don't mind being on my own, I'll probably have a quick shower any way so I'd only hold you up"

"Well if your sure?" he offered.

"I'll be fine, now go! I cant tell your itching to get in there" he winked at me and left me alone to drink my coffee. I ran back to my room before going out and had a quick shower I blow dried my hair, chucked on some mascara and a bit of lip gloss and was ready to go. My headache was pretty much gone now but I put my sunglasses back on before going outside just in case. I never wanted a hangover again.

I walked around for about an hour until I came across a little market, I was looking around one stall that sold bracelets when I noticed a familiar face browsing over some wooden beaded bracelets sort of like the ones Adrian had bought me.

"Sorry to say this but I don't think that they're your colour" I giggled to myself.

"Azra." he nodded without even looking at me. He didn't look exactly pleased that I was talking to him.

"Shouldn't you be guarding Lissa?" I asked.

"her errands mainly consisted of making phone calls in her room so she gave a few of us the day off" he seemed pleased by this and extremely grateful to Lissa.

"That was nice of her" I agreed. He nodded and moved to look at some other bracelets.

"Are you looking for a present for your girlfriend?" I asked. Obviously trying to ask if he had a girlfriend. I'd seen people do this in different films and it was never subtle then. So I had no idea why I'd even tried it. He glanced at me sideways and smirked.

"No, for my mother actually" I couldn't help but grin. _Woah. _I needed to slow down. I was snogging the face off Adrian last night and now I'm happy at another guy (who I don't know) not having a girlfriend.

"That's nice" I smiled at him. I thought it was really cute that he was sending home a gift to his mum. He came across as a real family guy. It sort of made my heart melt a little.

"No Adrian this morning?" he asked sarcastically.

"No, I came out on my own, he offered but he's at the casino now" he laughed at that and it kind of came out as a snort.

"Oh he's a keeper" he mused to himself. All the warm feelings I felt for this guy vanished. (well maybe not all of them) he was being rude now.

"Hey, you don't have to be mean you know."

"Mean? What are you, 4?" I glared at him.

"It was the nicest way I could describe you, Plus it's none of my concern weather he spends all his money in there. Where not together" he looked up at me when I said that. He looked Glad. Almost smug.

"Didn't look that way when you left his room in your underwear this morning" he scoffed. I rolled my eyes.

"Nothing happened actually, we drunkenly kissed but that was it, I fell asleep but I don't see why that's any of your concern." I answered dryly. I scanned over the bracelets not saying a word and was surprised when I heard him sigh and he grabbed my hand, I raised my eye brow at him and he let himself smile a bit.

"Look, I just don't want to see you get taken advantage of. I know how his reputation is that's all. You seem different from the usual girl's he goes for, You seem smart and kind. And.." he cut himself off. What was he going to say? I wondered about different possibilities. _Sexy, beautiful. _Etc. he continued ".. Naive" I glared at him and snatched my hand back.

"You call me smart and then say I'm naïve.. how does that even make sense? You may as well have called me stupid." I said angrily. He looked at his hand, from where I had snatched mine back. He almost looked sad.

"I didn't mean to offend you, I just meant that your smart in the sense of you know about the world.. your clever with common sense and knowing about … stuff but your naïve when it comes to men" was this guy serious? He's seen me all of four times and the thinks he knows everything about me. He was so infuriating yet his concern wasn't fake, he really did think Adrian was how everyone has said he was.

"I have been In a relationship before you know, I know that most men are pigs and will try anything to get a girl in bed but last night.. It was Adrian who stopped _me_." I hadn't really wanted to mention this to anyone about last night but I didn't think it was fair that Adrian walked around with a terrible reputation when he was really a nice guy. He looked a bit disappointed when I told him this but as soon as it showed on his face it was gone. Could he be jealous? He didn't say anything so I tried to defend myself.

"... I mean I was completely drunk and I'd have never tried anything with a guy I don't know. I've never, ever had a one night stand. I've only ever had one boyfriend in nearly nineteen years and that kind of thing kind of seemed almost alien to me, I haven't flirted with anyone in years -" he cut off my ramblings with a laugh. I looked at him surprised.

"Sorry, I just remembered your terrible attempts to flirt with me yesterday and well I guess you've explained why your so terrible at it now." I laughed with him remembering the two times times I'd made a fool out of myself by chatting him up. I laughed mainly trying to cover my embarrassment.

"but don't worry, I can see your not that type of girl, you don't need to explain that to me" I smiled at him. The warm feelings came rushing back in.

"how can you tell? Maybe I'm really a sexual deviant" I tried my best to raise both my eyebrows up and down seductively. This earned a smirk from him.

"I'm sure you are, just not with strange men" he said this firmly. As if he was completely sure of it. It made me smile. I was glad someone thought so, after last night I was even doubting myself.

"so, want some helping picking out a present?" I offered. I figured since we were both out on our own wondering around the same market we may as well wander around the same one together. He considered this for a couple of seconds and I was half expecting him to say no and make some excuse as to why he had to leave but he didn't.

"sure, why not?" he grinned. I think it was the first time he actually smiled properly instead of doing those sarcastic little smirks. We walked around the stalls looking at different things, we went to this one that sold hats. Like a million different hats, I tried a few on including a large white sun hat, Nathan had said it looked cute and so I bought it when he wasn't looking. Or when I _thought_ that he wasn't looking when I caught up with him he saw the bag and laughed. _Damn_. I'd need to be sneakier. We finally found a present for his mother in the last stall in the market. It was a coaster. It had a picture of the lights that spell out Vegas on it. I laughed when he picked it up, out of all the presents in all of these stores he chooses a coaster? In the end he picked up one of the bracelets he'd seen originally for her too. My stomach was rumbling by the time we'd finished shopping so we decided to go to a little café around the corner, we ordered a sandwich each and sat chatting whilst we waited for food to come.

"I'm glad you got that bracelet for your mum, My ex bought me a coaster for a Christmas present before. I wanted to hit him with it." he laughed at me but his laugh faded into a sad smile.

"it must be hard being away from them for so long huh?" he nodded, I reached out and touched his hand, surprisingly he didn't move it away.

"Sometimes I miss them like crazy, My sister is a pain in the ass though. She rang me the other day and I answered expecting her to to actually want a conversation with me instead she shouted down the phone at me because she couldn't find a DVD she'd lent me ages ago" he shook his head but smiled anyway.

"when will you get to see them?" I wasn't sure weather to ask or not, but I kind of blurted it out when I was deciding.

"I'm not sure now, I was meant to last week but I had to put it off since the queen had some important business to attend too" I looked at him confused.

"what could be that important that you couldn't go home for a few days?" he just stared at me, i'd started to ask again when I realised he was actually answering me just by looking at me. Lissa had asked him to stay because of me. I suddenly felt really guilty, it had been my fault that he couldn't see his family. My fault that he was sad because he missed them so much.

"I'm so sorry" I frowned down at my hand on the table feeling too guilty to look at him.

"its not your fault" he shrugged "that's just the life of a guardian for you. I'm used to it, if the queen needs me to stay then she needs me to stay, My family understand. Queen Vasilisa had felt so guilty when she asked me but its my job to protect her."

"Still I feel bad, I ran away from my parents with strangers because I was mad at them and that has stopped you seeing your family." I suddenly felt home sick. When I got back I was going to ring my mum - that's if she wasn't in a meeting with her boss.

"You have a right to be angry Azra, you found out you were adopted, I'd have done the same thing in your shoes." he squeezed my hand. I'd forgotten I was even holding his. I smiled at him just as our food came, We let go of each others hands and ate in silence but this time it was comfortable, we didn't need to have a conversation It just felt strangely normal. We finished our food, paid for it and left. I said for him to keep walking back to the hotel and that I'd catch up with him, I walked to one of the market stalls and bought his mum another bracelet as a way to say sorry. It wasn't much but I knew he'd appreciate it. I caught up with him quickly he'd walked really slowly so that I would catch up. He looked at me suspiciously but let it go.

"So how are you and Rose getting on?" he asked

"Okay I guess, its only the second day in so we haven't spoken much, but it hasn't been bad" I smiled up at him.

"how are you... handling things?" I could see he felt awkward about asking this but after all the questions I asked about his family I could hardly moan.

"As well as I can, I'm still angry about it, it wasn't them who gave me up but its just the fact that in nearly 19 years they couldn't tell me? The contract only lasted 18 years and then my biological parents could find me if they chose too. They didn't obviously but Rose did. I just think it was lame of them to not tell when my real parents could have turned up at any moment and I wouldn't have had a clue!" I must have looked pretty upset about it because he stopped and hugged me. I was surprised by it and my arms kinda of got squished to my side. He stepped back and apologised.

"My mum always hugs my sister when she's upset.." he explained. I smiled.

"Its fine, thank you." It was the first time since all of this happened that anyone had actually showed me any sympathy, it was kinda nice. He smelled really good too which didn't help. My headache had started coming back this time it was from not getting enough sleep , I could feel my eyes getting droopy.

"I'd kill for some coffee right now" I moaned. I heard him groan along with me.

"mm, I could go for some hot chocolate"

"bar?" I asked.

"bar" he agreed. We took a small table by a window, the curtains were drawn but it was still effective. I took out the bracelet and handed it too him.

"what's this?" he asked.

"I got it as an extra present for your mum. I felt bad about you not being able to go home so I picked another one of these up. Sort of a sorry and a thank you."

"Sorry and a thank you?" he asked.

"well sorry that you couldn't go home and thank you for staying, I'd never have met you if you'd gone"

"would that be such a bad thing?" he teased.

"Yeah I'd say so" he looked up at me and smiled. "id have never bought that hat otherwise!" I laughed and he laughed with me. His laugh was incredible it made you want to bottle it up and save it for a rainy day. I decided that today had been good! I hadn't expected to run into him let alone eat lunch with him in a café and then go back for coffee at our hotel. I smiled when I realised it felt like a date. I remembered back to the first time I'd talked to him which happened to only be yesterday, I needed to ask him something, He said something which confused me greatly and I needed to know what he meant.

"Yesterday, you said that their was another side to me, what did you mean?" I asked hesitantly. He shrugged

"Just what I said earlier in the market" I felt like he was lying to me, he avoided my gaze an stirred his hot chocolate absent mindedly. I decided not to push it any more today though since we'd had such a good time. I smiled at him which made him think he'd gotten of the hook. He hadn't though. I'd make sure to bring it up again.

"So, what time do you have to get back to work?" I asked.

"In an hour" I couldn't tell weather he was happy or not about it, he'd put on his guardian stone face. Instead I grimaced for him.

"That must suck, your going to be shattered later" I felt sorry for him but took comfort in the fact that I would be in my bed very early tonight snuggled under the blankets.

"I don't mind, I had a nice time today" he smiled. He was doing a lot of that today. Proper smiles no smirks,

"Me too" I agreed, we locked eyes for a moment, before he spoke again

"I suppose I'd better go though, I need to have a shower before I'm back on duty" he looked sort of sad about leaving. I think it was sadness, it could have been anything really it was only on his face for a second so I didn't really understand it.

"Where do you sleep by the way?" he raised his eyebrow at me, I realised it must have sounded wrong and tried to correct myself but he answered me anyway

"We all have rooms around her majesty. Two guardians to a room" I smiled.

"must be nice to have to company" I smiled. I hated the fact I'd be sleeping alone tonight. I didn't feel safe and it was so lonely being in that big old bed in a strange place. He smiled a little smile at me.

"Your lonely?" it was more of a statement than a question. I nodded shyly. It made me feel weak to admit it but hey there was no point lying. Especially to him. I kind of felt like we understood each other. I know its been only two days but it just feels..normal to be around him.

"it's just odd, I'm in a strange place and the bed's too big.."

"too big?" he cut in laughing. I nodded

"it is for one person" he stopped laughing an smiled at me,

"You said you liked being on your own, Rose offered to share with you" he pointed out.

"And rip her and Dimitri apart? I couldn't do that to them."

"you'll work something out, don't worry." he stood up, ready to leave. I stood up to day goodbye and he pulled me into another hug, this time my arms weren't squished and id managed to put my arms around him too. When he pulled back I laughed.

"Two hugs in one day, I must be privileged" I grinned.

"that was just to say thanks, My mum will love the bracelet"

"Its the least I could do" With one last smile he walked away. I wanted him to stay and hug me all day. His arms were so muscular and warm. He made me feel safe. I watched him walk away and my heart sank a little.

I walk back to the elevator feeling a little deflated. Back to my empty room and my empty bed. Suddenly Vegas didn't seem so appealing. I Crawled into the giant king size bed as soon as I closed the door. I pulled the cover over my head, grabbed my phone and dialled the number I had been dreading calling, as I heard the familiar voice on the other end of the phone answer I couldn't help but let a tear fall down my face.

"Mum?"

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**So! Let me know what you think, I know the story is still a bit raw and there hasnt been much guardian stuff yet But I promise that it's going to come up pretty soon! **

**I also have a little twist that i'm going to start adding in!**

**Hope you've enjoyed it!**

**_kristina x_  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**I just realised that I uploaded this earlier without saying anything here, Thank you for your reviews! it's not many yet but i'm hoping that as soon as this story starts to progress that it will pick up!**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter. Theres even a Nathan P.O.V in this! **

**Dont forget to Review :D**

**_kristina x_**

**_

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"M_um?"_ I asked, my voice broke a little as I'd started to speak.

"Azra?" she asked back apparently shocked to hear my voice

"Yeah it's me... Mum I'm so-"

"Azra I'm a little busy right now I'll have to call you back later" she answered rudely. She was pissed. I guess she had every right to be since I did run away from her and my father.

"Mum I know your angry but please, I want to talk to you. I miss you." I started to cry harder. I knew she could hear me sobbing and a part of me hoped that she would soften like she normally did when I was upset. My mother may be uptight and a bit of a workaholic but that didn't mean she was a bad mother. I'll always remember the day my boyfriend and I had broken up. She came to my room with a tub of ice-cream and we sat in my bed talking for hours. Well she talked I mainly just cried.

"Oh really? That's funny Azra. What's happened have you run out of money or something?" there was definitely no warm tone to her voice actually it was pretty harsh.

"What? No! I genuinely miss you and daddy"

Yes I still called him daddy! I'd always been a bit of a daddy's girl, every Sunday when my mum would work over time he'd take me to dinner and we'd eat something completely unhealthily and even though we'd be stuffed we always ordered desert after wards. We had the same thing every week; a chicken burger and fries and for desert a toffee Sunday.

"Azra I don't have time for this right now. If you want to pretend that these people actually like you and delude yourself into thinking that you can have new friends and family then fine! But DO NOT. Include me in your stupid little stunt" her voice was booming down the phone and I had to hold it away from my ear to stop myself from going deaf. I suddenly felt so stupid for actually missing this woman. Her words were hurt full and I knew that she had intended them to be. All my nice thoughts of my mother vanished. My anger returned and I wanted nothing better than to hurt her right back

"Stupid stunt? How dare you! Rose took a ten and a half hour flight to meet me and tell me the truth about my life which by the way you have failed to do for the past 18 years! But then again you were probably just too busy to. Work comes first right Anna?" my voice was icy and cold, I have never spoken to my mother the way I just did and I had especially never called her by her first name.

"Maybe when you've _grown up_ you'll understand Azra."

"I'm nearly 19 or did you forget?" I asked snidely

"Your nearly nineteen yet your acting like a spoilt child!" she shouted.

"I am no where near spoilt and you know it, I have never asked you or dad for anything! You were the ones who gave me money each week! I never asked for that! I didn't even ask you or dad to take the day off on my birthday! I spent my 18th alone! So yeah, well done! Mum of the year!" I practically screamed the last few words. Tears were pouring down my face in anger. I heard a _click_ and my phone started beeping. She'd hung up on me. I plunged myself head first into my pillow and let my tears spill all over them. How could my own mother speak to me that way? I was phoning her to say sorry. I told her that I missed her and she could still be like that? I know I said some pretty bitchy stuff back to her and I probably shouldn't have but I have such a short temper and had two days worth of pent up anger to release and her cold words just egged me on.

After about twenty minutes of heavy crying I heard a light knock on the door. I looked around in desperation for a tissue to wipe my face.

"Um just a minute!" I shouted. I ran to the bathroom and dabbed my face with cold water trying to get rid of my puffy eyes and blotchy face. It hid it a little but not completely. Giving up I walked to the door and looked through the little peep hole. It was Nathan. I smoothed down my hair quickly before opening the door. His face dropped when he saw me and I opened the door fully to let him inside.

"What happened?" he asked concerned. If it were anyone else I would have made some excuse and not told them but I didn't want to lie to Nathan. There was something about him that made me trust him completely. I ran into his arms and started to cry again. He didn't resist, instead he put his arms around me hugging me back. He led me over to my sofa and we both sat down. I'd finally managed to calm my crying and started to feel very self conscious about my appearance. Nathan didn't care though, He stared at my intently until I was ready to talk.

"I r-rang my mum" he moved close to me and put his arm around me pulling me towards him slightly. He rubbed his hand up and down my arm in a soothing manner and I relayed the whole conversation to him and he sat patiently listening to every word until I was finished.

"She's just worried about you" he said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I stared at him in disbelief and scoffed.

"Worried? She told me to leave her out of this- this being my life at the moment, she doesn't even want to know me" I stated bitterly.

"You caught her off guard, she probably felt guilty but instead of owning up to it she covered it up by arguing with you"

"So, it's my fault that this whole argument happened?" I asked in amazement. I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. He pulled his arm back from my side and turned to face me.

"I didn't say that, I just meant that in a few days I'm sure she'll call you back and apologize" he put his hand over mine and squeezed gently.

"You don't know my mother. She's too proud to apologize." I stated.

"But she still could, just give her some time, when she doesn't hear from you in a while she'll ring you" he smiled at me, it was a small smile but it was still comforting.

"God, this is so _fucked_ up!" I cried. He pulled me into another hug but this time he stroked my hair too. It felt nice. I smiled despite the previous situation. His arms were so warm it felt like having my own personal duvet wrapping itself around me. I moaned in contentment and Nathan pulled away awkwardly. I looked down sheepishly feeling embarrassed but he cupped my chin with his hand pulling my head upwards to meet his gaze. I stared into his eyes for what seemed like eternity and it looked like he was making a decision in his mind, Slowly he lent in towards my face and I held my breath as his face grew nearer soon enough his lips finally touched mine and I could feel the passion behind it starting to grow. His hand ran down both of my arms and he pulled me closer. I kissed him back and it started to grow more fierce. I ran my hands through his hair and I could feel his tongue playfully touching my lips I groaned in pleasure wishing for it to never end but it did end almost as abruptly as it started. He pulled away and looked at me in shock his chest moving up and down fast. _What just happened?_ I thought and why did I want to do it again so badly. Nathan closed his eyes for a few seconds and his breathing calmed.

"Lissa wanted to see you, she sent me to come get you, we should probably go.." he looked around the room looking at anything but me. I got up quietly still shocked at what had just happened. I grabbed the first pair of shoes and the first cardigan I could find and stood by the door. Nathan took that as a signal to go and lead the way to Lissa's room.

We didn't talk on the way and it started to feel uncomfortable he quite obviously regretted what we just did. Anger boiled inside of me. How dare he! He can't just kiss me and then pretend like nothing happened. We reached Lissa's room and Nathan nodded at the guardian waiting outside her room. The guardian who's name I had found out was Daniel let us inside the room and then took himself back outside after Lissa had thanked him. I looked around Lissa's room in pure awe. I thought my room was luxury but it looked like a pig sty in comparison to this. Her room was more like a giant apartment since her bedroom was in a completely different room and I was currently standing in a sort of living room/ Study/ Dining room.

"Hey! I was starting to think you two had gotten lost!" I looked over to see Lissa and Rose sat on a sofa with Eddie opposite them, She had a large book full of telephone numbers open in front of her. Lissa was looking at Nathan and I expectantly waiting for an answer. I looked towards Nathan with an amused expression all over my face, I was mainly curious about how he was going to cover it up.

"Azra was asleep when I went to get her, It took me a while to wake her up" He stated. He was actually believable nothing in his expression gave away his lie at all! I guess that's a guardian thing being able to stash away your feelings so they don't show up on your face.

"That's okay, sorry for waking you up Azra" she responded.

"It's okay, It's not like I have anything better to do" I replied with a slight snide edge that apparently only Nathan picked up on.

"Good! Because your gonna be quite busy over the next couple of days!" Rose exclaimed.

"I am?" I asked confused.

"Lissa has managed to find a gym close to here that has a ballet room that you can use to train in. To learn guardian stuff." she explained. She seemed excited by all of this, probably more than what I was but I was happy to be learning something about it all and If I had chance to get to know Rose more it was a win win situation.

"That's cool! So will you be teaching me Rose?" I asked hopefully.

"Well sometimes. Lissa has arranged for Nathan to train you most of the time but me and Eddie have said we'll help too every now and again" I looked at Nathan shocked. Had he known about this? Was that why he pulled away and regretted our kiss? Either way he still kissed me knowing he shouldn't. I didn't say anything for a while since I was mulling things over in my head. Eventually Rose broke the silence.

"That's okay right? You still want to give it a try don't you?" she asked nervously.

"What? Oh yeah I'm just excited. Made me sort of lost for words" I laughed nervously. Rose grinned at me broadly probably happy that I was so excited to learn about becoming a guardian. Even though I had lied when I said that. I mean I was happy to be starting the training after all this was the opportunity Rose had promised me. "When do we start?" I asked curiously.

"Now" Nathan answered. I raised my eye brows in shock.

"Now?, like right now?"

"No, Now as in a months time. Yes right now!" his sarcasm annoyed me I suppose I would get one good thing out of this, I could punch him right in the face.

I finally agreed and Nathan and I set out for the half an hour car journey to the gym stopping at my room before so I could change into more appropriate clothing. We spent the whole car journey in silence and it was _really_ awkward. More awkward than any awkward situation I'd even been in.

The ballet room itself wasn't all that amazing but it was clean and spacious. In the middle was five of those blue exercise mats laid out on the floor and I guessed we'd be using those today.

"I thought we'd do some sparring to begin to get a feel of what you can do." He gestured towards the blue mats, I'd heard of sparring before it basically meant he was about to kick my ass especially since I'd never ever fought anyone in my entire life. Verbally I have, just not physically I've just never been the violent type.

"Don't we have to do some sort of stretching first?" I asked

"No not today, usually we would but its going to be a quick and simple spar match"

"I've heard that you should always stretch" I pointed out annoyingly

"Yes and normally you would but you don't need to today we wont be doing anything hard"

"My gym teacher said that before most physical activities you should stretch your muscles"

He sighed loudly clearly annoyed at me. "Fine! Go ahead and stretch then" he shouted.

"Hm, Nah you said I didn't need to" I smiled up at him and he started at me in astonishment.

"Lets just get started shall we?" he asked sounding tired of me already. He explained a few basic rules about where was acceptable to hit and what moves you were allowed to perform. It all sort of went in one ear and out of the other. None of it seemed interesting yet I just wanted to get to the part where I got to hit him.

"Okay so you got all that?" he asked. I nodded even though I quite clearly knew nothing.

We were stood opposite each other, Nathan was in some sort of crouch whereas I was just stood awkwardly straight.

"Okay so, you want to get into a stance like mine, its easier to leap out at someone like this" he paused and I copied his half crouch. I couldn't help but feel stupid I bet I looked completely ridiculous.

"I'm going to attack you now-" I cut him off with a laugh.

"Thanks?" he glared at me and continued

"All you have to do is defend yourself and then try to attack me right back" Yeah _that's all! _I had started to think about how ridiculously hard it actually was when he launched his attack on me. He sort of lunged at me and pushed me over with quite some force. I hit the mat hard, I tell you those things may look comfy but they aren't when your head crashes down on them! Nathan ran over and helped me sit up. I sat frowning at him clutching my head.

"You could have warned me! You caught me off guard!" I yelled. He offered no apology instead he laughed at me. _Charming_ I thought.

"That's the point Azra! You should have been concentrating, I guess you'll know for next time" he was definitely taking pleasure in my pain right now. He helped me onto my feet and we took our positions again. He charged at me and I managed to dodge it, I clenched my fists and aimed a punch at his face. I'm sure he had mentioned something about no face punching but I just couldn't resist. I didn't get as far as punching him though. He quickly grabbed my wrist and twisted it behind my back pinning me to the floor.

"You lose again," he stated. I'd wanted to come back with some sort of sarcastic reply but my mind couldn't conjure anything up since all I could concentrate on was Nathan's body laying on top of mine, when he talked his warm breath would brush against my ear. I stayed silent.

"Were you trying to punch my face?" he asked sounded slightly shocked. He still hadn't moved from on top of me.

"Actually I was aiming specifically for your nose" I answered snidely. He ignored it though and laughed at me.

"Did you really think you could punch me?" I shrugged at him – well I tried to. Its hard to shrug when there's someone led on top of you holding your arms down.

"If you ever get off me I can show you that I can" He started to laugh but then seemed to noticed the close proximity of our bodies. He got off very quickly and left me to push myself up from the matt. He looked at me awkwardly for a second and then he got back into his fighting stance. I groaned and rolled my eyes getting into the stance myself. We carried on sparring for an hour. Well It wasn't really sparring it was more of me getting my ass kicked. Like I had suspected earlier. He only called it quits when one of his blows was so hard that I practically flew over the matt's and my head hit the wooden floor. It hurt but I tried to wave it off Nathan knew better though and ordered me to sit down for a while. He grabbed an ice pack from the first aid kit on the wall and handed it to me. I placed it onto my head grateful for the icy cold relief on the shooting pain in my head. It was probably going to bruise.

"Are you okay?" he finally asked.

"Oh yeah I'm just dandy" I replied sarcastically.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard" his apology was uneasy, I doubt that he'd even made a mistake before especially one that nearly knocked out their student.

"It's fine, you were just getting me back for trying to punch you" I teased.

"Why did you try to punch me? I said that the face was out of bounds"

"Why did you kiss me?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry but you have to know Azra that it was a mistake"

"Oh really? Your tongue accidentally found its way to mine?"

"That's not what I mean and you know it. I'm 22 and your only 18 - "

"I'm 19 in less than a month"

"That's still an age gap of three years, you should be kissing boys your own age"

"And you couldn't have had this great revelation before you kissed me?"

"I know Azra I'm sorry I let my feelings get the better of me for a couple of seconds. It was wrong of me and I'm sorry" he proclaimed. Wait did he just say feelings? _Feelings?_ Maybe I'm looking into this a bit too far but doesn't feelings mean like love or something?

"Feelings? You've known me two days Nathan"

"I know, and if someone had said that to me three days ago I'd have called them crazy, But with you -" he cut himself off and stared at the floor.

"With me what?" I urged.

"Nothing. It doesn't matter now" _awesome. _"We should probably head back anyway" he stood up and I handed the ice pack back to him reluctantly. We walked back to the car in silence.

The car ride on the way back was just as awkward as the one on the way there. I ached all over and my body was going to hate me in the morning. My head pounded still from hitting the hard floor, part of me thinks that it might have been deliberate but I could just be paranoid. I'm going to guess the latter since I couldn't imagine Nathan actually hurting a girl deliberately – unless they were like strigoi or something I guess.

I didn't even go to dinner that night once I got into my room and had a hot bath I didn't want to go anywhere. I slouched into my bed under the extra large duvet and feel into the deepest sleep I had slept in a while.

The next morning at breakfast everyone (apart from Adrian who was apparently still asleep) was keen to know about my first training session and I would have lied about it if Nathan hadn't been sat right with us. Unfortunately today was his day off so that meant he got to eat with us so there he was sat next to me eating his toast. With a bit of jam.

"She tried to punch me in the face" He told them. I heard Rose giggle but I didn't look up to see anyone else's expression.

"Yeah, then Nathan almost gave me a concussion" I replied with a snide smile. I felt a bit bad when I saw how guilty he looked about it but still it was his fault.

"It went well then?" Rose asked sarcastically.

"Maybe if Nathan wasn't so intent on killing me-"

"And maybe if Azra actually concentrated!" he interrupted me. I shot him the best glare I could before turning back to Rose to talk again.

"I was concentrating with all of my brain or mind or whatever. I'm curious why when you like practice on each other can't you punch each other in the face? When you kill a Strigoi you don't avoid their face..." I asked curiously and too my surprise it was Dimitri who answered me.

"Because as you said its practice, if we continuously punch each other in the face we'd be walking around with a black eye's or broken nose's all the time" His tone was serious but there was an edge of sarcasm to it too.

"Yeah and with the speed and force you put behind your fist it would have definitely broken my nose- If I hadn't dodged it that is" Nathan laughed.

"I can try again if you like?" Nathan narrowed his eyes towards me but I ignored him.

"Hey Rose?" I asked.

"hmm?"

"I was wondering about strigoi.. How do you kill one? I mean, I'm meant to be sort of training to be a guardian, maybe. Shouldn't I know that?" I'd been thinking about this for a while ever since Rose had told me about them, she had mentioned a lot of stuff about how they can't go out in day light, that they drink blood and all that but not how to kill one. I had different ideas in my head hadn't the typical way to kill a vampire been with a wooden stake?

"Well your meant to learn about that in your training but I don't think it matters if I tell you now. There's three ways to kill a strigoi; staking it, decapitation or setting it on fire." she looked curiously at me and I nodded along to her words.

"huh. have you killed in all three ways?" I asked generally interested.

"Well I've staked and decapitated but Christian is usually the one to set them on fire"

"How do you do that? Do you carry petrol and a lighter in your pocket or something?" I asked sarcastically.

"No" Christian answered, he looked around him to see if anyone was looking then out of no where balls of flame surrounded his hands. I dropped my fork onto my plate in shock making a loud clatter. The flames where gone in seconds but I couldn't move my eyes away from his hands. How did he just do that? Was it a trick? I finally forced my eyes to look into his face too see that he was smirking at me, looking around at everyone else I realised they had the same expression, except Lissa she looked more worried.

"What the fu-" I'd started to ask before Dimitri interrupted me quickly.

"Moroi's have a sort of power, they specialise in different elements ; like fire-" he gestured towards Christian "- Earth, air, water and spirit" he finished.

"Like magic?" I asked laughing. "Who was your headmaster Dumbeldore?" My joke would have been funnier if they'd have known who Dumbeldore was. I stopped laughing when I saw their confused faces. How could these people not know who he was?

"Well yes I suppose it is magic" Lissa answered stiffly.

"Oh I'm not making fun of it, I just found it funny, Do you do like spells and stuff?"

"Not really, we don't sit around cauldrons making potions. You just seen Christian using his element, no spells or wands or anything.." I think Lissa was slightly offended by my questions but since I was a huge Harry Potter fan I always just assumed magic was performed with wands and spells and all that sort of thing.

"And only moroi can do it?" I asked sadly.

"Yes" Well _that sucks!_ I wanted a cool magic power like turning invisible or controlling time or something! So far it seems like Moroi's get all the fun.

I spent the rest of breakfast annoying everyone with my questions about the "Magic" moroi's used and they were pretty fed up by the end of it. Lissa eventually decided to go back to her room to run more errands. I guess being queen was a lot of work and I'm guessing its a lot more than what she would have liked. She surprised me by asking me to go with her I was shocked and confused but told her I would. Everyone except Nathan went back to Lissa's room. (Since Nathan had a day off he was no longer required to follow her around)

I sat on one of the leather couches in Lissa's room next to Eddie, I hadn't really talked to him since the night I saw him strip down to his pants. I had been dreading having a conversation since i'm pretty sure he seen me in my underwear attached to a topless Adrian the morning after. Not to mention that I had been wearing a thong.

"So Eddie I hear the strip club down the road is looking for new dancers, you interested?" I teased. He chuckled and shook his head.

"I'm not the only one who likes to spend time in their underwear maybe you should join up too!" he grinned at me broadly and my smile dropped. Rose shot me a questioning look but didn't push it. Thankfully, I'd hate to explain that one. What would I say _oh yeah! That's a funny story you see after Dimitri put me to bed I snuck back out into Adrian's room and tried to have sex with him. He stopped me though and I feel asleep in next to nothing with Him wrapped around me. Oh yeah did I mention Eddie was in the same room!_

Lissa broke the awkwardness eventually by handing me an envelope. I stared at her, confused. The envelope was beautiful as strange as that sounds but its true. It was a sort of a pearlescent ivory colour and it had a gold vine patter around the edges. My name was in the middle written in gold ink, it was far too fancy to have _my_ name on it. I opened it carefully making sure not to rip any of it, inside was an invitation.

"What's this?" I asked frowning.

"Just look at it." Lissa urged pointing to the invite. I took it out and stared at it before reading and just like the envelope it was ivory with gold writing. It said -

_Miss Azra Arabella Hathaway. _

_You are cordially invited to the first Royal ball held by her majesty Vasilisa Sabina rhea Dragomir_

_guests will arrive for 12:00 pm check in at the Grandview Royal hotel in Las Vegas on may 1st. _

_The ball will commence at 7:00 pm and will officially end at 12:00 am. _

_Please R.s.v.p so room's can be acquired. _

_Lissa._

"I'm invited to a royal ball?" I exclaimed. I heard Lissa laugh at me

"Yes, I thought it would be good for you to see guardians in a more formal setting" she answered happily. "Plus its not strictly for royals I can have any of my friends there since I'm holding the ball" she added.

"Thank you" I smiled at her calling me her friend and it made me feel all warm inside.

"No problem! Oh and don't worry you wont be on your own all night Nathan offered to stick by you and show you different things about guardians and their charges" _Nathan offered? _How odd is that?

"He offered?" I asked clearly showing my confusion. Lissa looked at me strange.

"Well he is sort of your mentor for now plus he's pretty much the only guardian who can get off work that night too everyone else had already sworn to work" I smiled at her. Nathan seemed pretty serious about his work yet he offered so easily to take the night off to look after me.

"What will I wear?" I shrieked suddenly. I had bought clothes for every occasion except for a ball. How was I supposed to know that the queen would decide to throw a royal ball and I'd be invited.

"Don't worry I need to go dress shopping anyway, I thought we could go on Monday? I have to meet the hotel manager tomorrow to let him know how many people are coming since pretty much everyone has already r.s.v.p'd, you are coming right?"

"Hell yeah!" I shouted excitedly. I Azra Arabella Kelly was going to a royal ball and might I just add that I was personally invited by the queen! I got up quickly and hugged Lissa "I'm so excited!" I admitted.

"But just remember it isn't all about having fun your going to be learning a lot that night too, so its probably best you don't drink a lot" Dimitri stated. Rose said that he gets more fun when he warms up to a person. I can't wait for that to happen. So far he's just been Mr. serious I'd only talked to him a few times properly, maybe its because half the time he's been on guardian duty either that or he just doesn't like me much. I was hoping it wasn't the latter, having your sister's boyfriend hate you can't be fun.

"Of course, I'll be on best behaviour I promise" I crossed my heart to show just how serious I was being but Dimitri rolled his eyes at me and went back to being a normal stone like guardian.

"So Nathan is the only guardian not on duty that night then?" I asked Rose, I had kinda wanted to spend more time with her. Ever since we arrived in Vegas I've hardly seen her and I know she's busy and she has an important job but I'd just hoped that since she was my sister and everything that she would try and spend more time with me.

"Yeah sorry, But I'm off duty when we go shopping so that means that you, Lissa and myself can have fun and try stuff on!" she smiled at me and I smiled right back happy that I'd spend the day with her and Lissa.

"That sounds good!" I replied. "Where's Adrian by the way? I haven't seen him in a while" I remembered that he'd missed breakfast from sleeping in.

"He had a pretty late night last night, he stayed in the Casino all night and got pretty smashed" Rose laughed. _Crap! _I was meant to meet Adrian at the casino after shopping yesterday instead I spent My dad hanging out with Nathan. I didn't regret it though. It sounds a bit harsh but i'd had a lot of fun with Nathan yesterday even with the kiss. Who am I kidding the kiss was the best part! It just kind of went down hill from there when he started to regret it and then kick my ass in my first ever training.

"I told him I'd meet him at the casino yesterday, I completely forgot though" I admitted guiltily.

"Dont worry! Adrian's a big boy" Christian laughed. "He can handle being stood up" he smirked.

"I didn't stand him up, It wasn't a date! he offered me to go to the casino with him and I said that I would later on in the afternoon.." I could not have people thinking I'd stood Adrian up on a date.

"All right!Keep your pants on!" Christian joked. Eddie outright laughed at this which caused everyone to give him weird looks. I of course knew why he was laughing and glared at him. I mentally reminded myself to kick him when I was an awesome guardian ( If I ever became one)

"Do you think he'll be mad?" I asked nervously. The last thing I wanted was to lose Adrian as a friend he was the first one I had made here after all. I felt kind of bad demoting him to just friend status now since I had snogged him and had even wanted to go further – a lot further actually but I just couldn't see myself getting into a relationship with him. The smoking and drinking every day and night I just don't think I could handle that as his girlfriend. Having to take care of him being drunk every night would just get to be a pain in the ass after a while.

"No, He'll be fine, Rose told him you had guardian crap to do, I'm sure he understands" Lissa answered for Christian. I nodded, feeling slightly relieved that I wouldn't have to go crawling to Adrian and apologize. Lissa was right I'm pretty sure these guys would have told him at some point that I would have been starting my first ever training session. He couldn't be mad at the right? I mean what he doesn't know wont hurt him and I do plan on not letting him find out about it.

"Well I'd better go, I thought I'd go to the gym today to put in some extra work outs" I sighed. Rose smiled proudly at me and even Dimitri had a small smile on his sort of made me want to work extra hard to not let these guys down. Like I had to prove myself you know? I'd heard all their awesome stories about how they single handedly fought off a ton or strigoi each. They all seemed so strong and deadly. Even Dimitri had relayed a few of his stories to me at breakfast and I have to admit his were the best out of all three of the guardians who shared. I said goodbye to everyone and made my way slowly back to my room to change into my gym clothes.

Half an hour later I was set to go to the gym, I had tied my hair up into a ponytail with a few of my messy curls hanging out since they refused to stay inside the elastic but it looked kinda cute like that though. I'd managed to find my grey jogging trousers that I'd packed to lounge around in and a plain black vest top which was quite tight and only came to above my belly button but I'd seen women in the gym wearing hot pants and much much worse so I figured that what I was wearing was okay!

I had to get a taxi to the gym since no one could drive me and I couldn't lend anyone's car. It was actually quicker than the car ride I'd taken with Nathan and part of me wondered if he had been going deliberately slow to spend time with me. The taxi guy hardly spoke to me and I'd been so used to the ones in Wales who were so chatty that I just expected every driver to be that way but apparently not all of them were that friendly.

Inside the gym I made my way over to a small corner which had a few mats and mirrors I was guessing they used this part for stretching or some random cardio workout for women. Since Nathan wasn't here I felt free to stretch as much as I liked. I bent down and reached my toes holding it there for a few seconds. It hurt since I was still aching all over from yesterday and I didn't know if I'd actually be able to do much working out.

_**Nathan's P.o.v**_

I checked into the gym's reception receiving a visitors pass, I turned it over and realised the girl who worked on the front desk had left her number on the back. Becka her name was. She was pretty but she was no Azra.

It was hard for even me to believe but as soon as Azra walked in through those hotel doors something in my life just clicked into place. I've never been one for love or girlfriends or romance but she took my breath away, it seems ridiculous after only 4 days but when I'm with her I feel connected like as if there's something pulling me towards her. I'm not sure whether its her messy curly hair or her welsh accent or maybe even her bad attempts at flirting. I really don't know all I do know is that I want her so badly.. and I cant have her. Being a guardian is demanding enough but being part of the royal guard is completely different. If something happened to the queen on my watch it would be entirely my fault and not only would my name be branded for the rest of my life but I could be put on trial for treason unless it was proven to be a complete accident I would be most likely executed since no one would want to stand up for someone who was responsible for having the queen killed. It's not just that though, were not going to stay in Vegas forever. I will need to move wherever Lissa (what she ordered me to call her) will need to move, I know how lonely Azra gets how could I do that to her? Just get up and leave when I needed too. She wouldn't be happy and what would happen if she decides to go back to Wales? I can't let anything happen for her sake. I don't want to hurt her. It's so hard when I'm around her though. All I can think about is kissing her and the feel of her hands through my hair. I slipped up in her room and I'm not sure how low I cant actually keep from letting anything else happen.

I walked into the gym to find a group of guys by the weights all gathered in a little group staring at something In the corner of the room. Well they weren't just staring they were ogling and as soon as I saw what they were practically dribbling over I couldn't keep from staring either. I noticed her straight away. Azra, doing stretches – but not just any stretching she was bent over touching her toes, then coming back up stretching above he head and going straight back down pushing her butt out as she did. I couldn't help notice the top of her red thong as she bent down, her body sent shivers down my spine. _How is it possible for someone to be that perfect?_ I thought. I finally managed to pull my eyes away and ran over to Azra covering as much of her up as I could with my jacket.

_**Azra P.O.V**_

I was about to do my last stretch down to my toes when I felt a body behind me. I got up to see Nathan holding his jacket out as if trying to hide me. I raised my eyebrows and stared at him.

"Uh hi?" I asked with my one eyebrow raised. He moved his jacket down awkwardly and pointed to a group of guys over on the weights. They were staring at me, looking a little disappointed actually. I looked up at Nathan confused.

"They were watching you stretch... when you would bend over" he informed me awkwardly. My eyed widened in shock and I could feel my cheeks burn in embarrassment.

"Oh my god" I whispered. "that's so embarrassing" I groaned rubbing my eyes. How could I have not realised them staring at me? Why did I have to do that one damn stretch?

"Don't worry, how long were you doing that for?" he asked.

"I don't remember. I meant to do different stretches but that one just kinda relaxed me so I just carried on doing it. I thought it was safe to do it in the corner.."

"don't worry I think they'd only just noticed" he was lying but it was to make me feel better so I didn't mind. I saw his jacket in his hands and remembered that he had taken it off I glanced up to check out his body. _Woah! _I looked down at his bare arms he was wearing some sort of working out vest. He looked hot. Not just normal hot like stupidly hot. His arms were so muscular but not the gross type of over muscular it was just right. His vest was tight enough to make out his abs and oh god! Was it sexy! I realised I was staring and averted my eyes quickly. I looked up to see him smirking at me. Damn. He'd definitely caught me eyeing him up. I needed to do something to take the attention off of me checking out his hot body.

"I bet I can out run you on the treadmill" I blurted out. Yes well done Azra. You complete and utter Twat. He looked at me confused but agreed any way.

"What do I get when I win?" he asked with a cheeky smile.

"hmm, well when I win I'd like a coffee but if on the off chance you win I will buy you a hot chocolate" I held out my hand and he shook it.

"Deal" he agreed.

We took our places onto a treadmill each. We set the same speed and made sure to press go at the exact same time. We finally started, I made sure to keep breathing through my mouth and to keep it even and steady. Nathan of course made it look completely effortless, he had started sweating a bit though which only made him look even sexier. The way his Vest clung to his body as he ran was just an amazing sight to take in.

I lasted around half an hour before getting out of breath I would have lasted longer if stupid Nathan would have quit smiling at me and looking so god damn sexy. It was a huge distraction. The ache in my legs was screaming at me to stop and I had to give in, in the end. Nathan saw me slow down and came to a halt too. His breathing was fast but he didn't look out of breath in fact he looked as if he could have ran all night and not been affected by it at all. I moaned and grabbed my leg sitting (practically collapsing) onto the floor.

"What's wrong?" he asked worried. I groped my leg, up until now I'd tried to not let on that i'd be in pain. Mainly because I hadn't wanted to look weak but who was I kidding? I'd done one training session of course I was going to ache all over!

"It's just my muscles, they ache a little from yesterday" I answered through my heavy breathing

"And you forced it by running? Here let me help you stretch your body out properly"

He got up and grabbed my feet taking off my trainer and I secretly prayed to god that they didn't smell. He didn't wrinkle his nose or anything so I was guessing I was good to go. I thanked god quickly before returning my attention back to Nathan. It was kinda weird - him taking off my shoes It kinda felt sexy like he was undressing me. He held my foot and began moving it in small circles. I moved my head backwards and squeezed my eyes shut not wanting to show it hurt. It kind of hurt in a good way though like as if my muscles were finally starting to loosen up. He started moved the stretching up my leg heading for my knee next. I have to admit my thoughts where definitely not pure at this time, his hands running up my legs made me imagine all sorts of things. He bent my knee all the way back into my chest which actually felt surprisingly good like when you do the cool down stretches after a hard workout and it feel like a little piece of last stretch he did involved him grabbing my foot again and pushing my leg straight back at my chest. To his surprise he managed to get my leg all the way back to my chest and I didn't moan in pain once. He looked at me a little freaked out and I let out a giggle. I couldn't help but notice how close he was to me, his body was practically on top of mine and our faces where inched apart.

"I did ballet when I was younger and I'm _extremely flexible_" I explained in a whisper. In a split second he pulled back and was standing up.

"All done!" he shouted in a high pitch voice. I burst out laughing did he seriously just say _all done? _Like a child said after they finally finished their dinner.

"I'm going to go get changed and shower see you back here in 15?" I asked. I needed to was away my impure thoughts. He nodded and walked off and I couldn't help but giggle as I walked to the showers.

I was late going back to reception since I'd wanted to apply some mascara and pull down my hair, I was wearing an extra tight pair of skinny jeans and Paramore band tee-shirt. I saw Nathan chatting to some random pretty girl at reception and as soon as the girl saw me she threw me the dirtiest look I have ever received in my life. If looks could kill and all that...

"Hey" I greeted Nathan ignoring the girl "Ready to grab some coffee or in your case hot chocolate..?" I asked fully aware of the girl staring evilly at me.

"Yeah there's a little Café around the corner apparently, Becka here was just telling me so.. lets go!" _burn_. She had totally been trying to get him to ask her out. I couldn't help but smirk as I walked out with him.

We made it to the café within a couple of minutes and we chatted and laughed about "Becka" on the way.

We found a table for two inside and I ordered a hot chocolate for Nathan and an extra strong black coffee for myself.

"Nathan?" I started to ask "Why.. are you a guardian?" I finished. He seemed a little caught off guard by my question but answered my none the less.

"Because Moroi's need protection" typical that he would give the same answer every other guardian would give.

"No! Nathan I want to know why personally you became a guardian?" I cleared up my question to make sure he couldn't change it.

"I don't know, I guess it was just the normal thing to do since I'm the only guy in my house"

"So you never really got to decide?" I asked, shocked.

"My mother made the best decision for me" he seemed completely sure of it and their was a warning tone in his voice telling me to not question his mothers choice.

"If you could do any job, apart from the one you already do... what would it be? Like what would be your dream job?"

"Uh, I don't really know.." he paused "I guess a teacher" I actually hadn't seen that coming. Nathan a teacher? It was strange to imagine Nathan doing anything but being a guardian maybe that was because I'd only known him since he was a guardian. The strange thing was though was that I could actually imagine him teaching children, he seemed so compassionate and kind and helpful.

"Really? I never would have thought you'd say that! You would actually be a great teacher though" I admitted.

"You think so?" he laughed which faded into him smiling to himself. "I don't know.. What about you then?. What's your _dream_ job?" he asked waving his hands around when he said the word "_dream"_

"Don't laugh! but I've always wanted to own a little bakery that sells like loads of cool little cupcakes and freshly baked bread" I admitted hesitantly. I'd never told anyone about that little fantasy before I guess I was afraid people would think I was silly but ever since I was a little girl I always imagined myself in my own little bakery with dozens of pretty cupcakes in all sorts of colours! My shop of course would have its regulars who came in for their fresh bread in the mornings or for the little bread rolls and children would come in with their parents after school begging for a cupcake. I sighed out loud.

"Okay, I definitely didn't see that one coming! Can you actually bake ?" he chuckled.

"Yes I can bake and cook all sorts!" I exclaimed "I kinda had too, my parents often missed dinner because they'd work late or something so I learnt to cook and bake stuff, my family were only ever fully together for dinner like once a week" I shrugged. It hadn't been a bit deal to me then but now looking back I realised how much time my "family" actually spent apart and it became even more clear just how much time I spent alone.

"Really?" he asked shocked. He was definitely a family man it was actually really sweet. It was so different from the men I'd been around all of my life, so obsessed with work and other matters,I just wanted to jump over the table and snog his face off. I didn't though. I restrained myself – just about.

"Nathan do you have fee-" I'd started to ask but stopped dead in my tracks when I noticed his eyes growing wider. I looked up at the door and seen two strange looking men walk in they were so pale and the first thing I noticed was their eyes- they were terrifying.

"Azra, I need you to get up and walk out of here now and then run as fast as you can back to the car lock yourself in it and don't open it for anyone but me" he whispered seriously

"Nathan wh-"

"Go, Azra now!" I was frightened now, the urgency in his voice told me I needed to go. I got up without hesitating and walked towards the door. As soon as I was outside I started to run just like he had told me to although I decided to take a short cut down a small alleyway.

I made it half way through when something grabbed me and threw me into the wall on my right. I hit it hard and shrieked in pain as I slumped to the floor against my own will. A tall but bulky thing stood in front of me staring down at me. I noticed it's eyes they were like the same ones I'd seen in the café. They terrified me and my whole body refused to move. It grinned at me and I caught sight of something pointy in its mouth. What I'm guessing were it's fangs. _Shit._ I thought. I tried to shout for help but no sound would escape my mouth and I tried to will my body to get up.

"Oh, you are a pretty one aren't you? It'll be almost a shame when I kill you.. almost" he laughed a cruel sadistic laugh and it made me shiver. My whole body shook in fear but I finally managed to get a few words out.

"Fuck you!" his smile faded and he sort of growled at me whilst he balled his one fist and sent it flying into my face. I screamed but He laughed as the blood splattered from my nose. He moved his one hand down my leg until he reached the lower half of it near my foot. He tightened his grip squeezing harder and harder. Pain seared through my body. I screamed out and after sevreal agonizing moments of unbearable tension on my leg I heard a snap. I screamed louder and louder as he carried on squeezing the now broken bone in my leg. Tears streamed down my face. It was the worst agony I have ever felt in my entire life.

"Please, stop... please!" I begged through tears. The pain was unbearable and it was starting to make me feel nauseous. In a split second the guy was at my throat he brushed his fangs against my skin first teasing my body's fear and then suddenly I felt a burning pain in my neck that pulsed through all of me. His fangs were piercing my skin. Rose had told me that vampire bites felt like getting a high from a drug which was why so many people became addicted to it but there was no rush of pleasure and no highs from this. I felt pain every where – My leg, my nose and now my neck. He was drinking my blood hard and fast no doubt trying to drain me. He pulled back after a minute and stared at me in amazement and awe. It made me feel sick.

"What the _fuck_ are you?" he asked. By now I was trying to stop myself from passing out, my head had started spinning and I had started to feel numb I just about managed to whisper

"I'm a dhampir you ass" he glared at me and put his hands around my throat pulling our faces and inch apart.

"Your lucky you taste so good or I'd have killed you by now." he promised through his snarling teeth. I didn't doubt him one bit I was sure that if I opened my mouth one more time that he would end my life in a second but that didn't seem like such a bad option right now.

"If your going to kill me, could you just get on with it, your sort of wasting my time!" The Strigoi laughed at me. That cruel laugh that made me feel sick to my stomach. I turned my insides and I literally gagged.

"Oh, no I'm going to save you for just a minute until my … _friend _ tries you and then im going to drain you of life sucking the blood inch by inch out of you. Oh and its going to hurt by the way" He cruelly began placing pressure on my leg again he was pushing on the broken bone especially sort of pushing it into my skin. I yelled out in shock and agony. It really effing hurt you know. I did my best to stiffle my cries and screams but it was no good my leg felt like it was on fire and the way he was pressing and then pulling at my bone made me think he was going to pull it out and keep it like a trophy. It felt like forever until his "friend" arrived. I spent the few minutes in complete torment and suffering. I just wanted it all to end. If I was going to die I wanted it to be now. I didn't want this sick Bastard putting his mouth on my neck. I wanted the pain to go away I wanted everything to fade but it didn't and sure enough I heard distant mumblings of the two disgusting vampires discussing something. The other strigoi wasted no time in messing with me and instead plunged his fangs deep into my neck. I would have screamed if I had the energy but I just lay there submitting myself to darkness. Fresh blood ran down my neck and I heard the new guy moan in pleasure. I heard them planning on taking me to someone Their "boss" as they had called him. They both agreed that they had never tasted anything so sweet and pure as me and both took one more turn each in biting me before attempting to move me. I heard a loud clatter and a little while later I started to pass out. I started to feel like I was floating in mid air and I knew It was happening, Death was sucking every inch of me in. Its kind of ironic, I'd always been afraid of death until now but I welcomed it with open arms. My feelings faded and everything went dark.

_**Nathan's point of view**_.

I ran back to the car – to Azra straight after taking out the two Strigois who came into the cafe. They had been easy, they stupidly used compuslion on two of the young girls working their and tried to drain them right outside. I couldn't help but think how careless they'd been just running into an open space like that not knowing who would be in their. I peered inside the windows of the car hopefully and my heart dropped when I saw it was empty. _No!_ I screamed in my head. I ran faster than my body would have liked back through the streets up to the café I was almost there when I heard it, a blood curdling scream begging for the pain to stop begging to be killed. My stomach turned as I recognised her voice I ran in the direction of the scream and came towards a small alley way. I raced down it and saw a Strigoi leaning over Azra gripping onto her leg. Her bloody leg. _Oh god!_ I thought as I saw the white of her bone sticking out. She was covered in blood, it was dripping all over her white tee-shirt. He'd bitten her! Rage took over my body I grabbed the blood sucker and threw him hard against the wall but he hardly hit it. He was back onto his feet running at me within seconds luckily for me my stake had been out in my hand as he ran at me but he hadn't realised and ran straight into me. I felt the impact of the stake plunging into his chest and I pushed against it hard making sure for it to reach his heart and after a short struggle it did. I watched as the light left his eyes and he fell to the floor. _Azra!_ I remembered. I ran to her and saw her body slumped against some black bags.

"Azra! AZRA! Wake up!" I shouted as I shook her but she didn't stir and I knew I didn't have a lot of time left, She'd lost a lot of blood. "Stay with me now Azra! Come on! Stay with me" she started to murmur something so softly and quietly that at first I couldn't hear it, my stomach dropped when I finally realised what she was saying

"Death" she kept saying it over and over again until finally she changed it to "I welcome you" her body suddenly went limp in my arms and her hand fell down to her side.

"AZRA!" I shouted. I shook her a little more violently in my arm but her body just flopped around like a doll. _No! She can't be dead!_ I kept shouting in my head over and over again. I felt a tear run down my cheek as I held her lifeless body in my arms.

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**Okay so thats chapter four done!**

**I have to say i enjoyed writing this chapter! it did start to feel a bit long but I just coudn't stop writing and adding different bits in!**

**So what do you guys think? :D**

**What's going to happen to Azra? **

**Don't forget to review! **

**Thanks!**

**_Kristina x_  
**


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